Rick Astley reveals: I still get a tingle from singing

May 13 2008 by Emma Pinch, Liverpool Daily Post

I've never been Rickrolled

RICK ASTLEY has never  been Rickrolled.

For the uninitiated, it’s  where you click on a link to  something you really want  to see but instead of  getting pictures of Paris  Hilton in her underwear,  you’re treated to  Rick circa  1987, jerking about  awkwardly to Never Going  to Give You Up.

It’s estimated that at  least 3m people have been  inadvertently treated to the  You Tube video, and Rick  himself has been posted all  kinds of links to it by his  friends.

He remembers vividly  doing the video.

“Nobody asked me to  shuffle around like that,”  he explains, “I just did. The  clothes were just the  clothes I picked up the day  before going on Top of the  Pops. The blazer was from  Next.

“People think Pete  Waterman had this  masterplan; I know he  didn’t, because we made  the video the week I was  number one.

“It was like ‘Right, we’d  better make a video then’.  This was 1987 and it was  all a bit haphazard.”

The Rickrolling  phenomenon has made  him giggle a lot, too, he  says, although he doesn’t  flatter himself that it’s a  tribute.

“The way I look at it is  this. Some daft 15-year-old  kid thought ‘I’m going to  send my friend a link to  something he wants to see  like a motorbike crash or  whatever it is, and for fun  I’m going to pick that naff  1987 hit thing that my  mum’s got and send him a  video to that instead.

“It’s something I might  have done when I was 18.

“All my friends have sent  links to me, but no-one’s  ever properly Rickrolled  me.

“There’s a challenge  there.”

The phenomenon spread  to impromptu mass  renditions of the song at  basketball games and  outside Scientology  headquarters in the States.

“Putting masks on and  singing Never Gonna Give  You Up outside a  Scientology church, I’d  find that hilarious  personally,” he comments.  “But Scientology – it’s  leave well alone.

“If I could have used  Rickrolling to some  benefit, then great – but I  can’t, so I just have to live  with it.”