Rick Astley takes on swing hits on night three of Henley Festival

EIGHTIES pop legend Rick Astley took to the floating stage on Saturday night to headline the third day of the Henley Festival.

At just age 21 Astley topped the charts in twenty-five different countries with his 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up”, catapulting him into international stardom.

Now aged 59, the singer, who was dressed in a black tux and accompanied by a full band, performed a markedly different set as he indulged the crowd in a lively performance of swing hits.

After opening the night with Come Fly with Me by Frank Sinatra, Astley told the crowd they looked beautiful, adding he was glad to see they had “all made the effort.”

He joked that he would like to “salute” some audience members who had chosen to keep their suit jackets on, even after the festival had allowed them to be removed due to the heat, which on Saturday hit 32°C.

Pointing to one man in the crowd, he said: “If you are wearing Red velvet you have got to keep it on hey!”

Astley explained that he had been introduced to many of the hits he would play by his parents, adding his father, Horace, was the "Sinatra of the house”.

“I learnt some of these songs because of my dad singing them, not because of Sinatra singing them,” he said. “So some of the words might not make a lot of sense to you, but they make a lot of sense to me because they were my dad's version.”

He sang a number of classic hits sung by the 20th-century jazz icon, including The Way You Look Tonight, Strangers in the Night, Fly Me to The Moon, and Cheek to Cheek.

Astley, who appeared enraptured by his band’s accompaniment, describing the trombone as “the sexiest instrument known to man”, continued with a number of mid-century classics.

With glittering graphics behind him, Astley had the crowd on their feet and swaying their arms along to the music.

He performed a selection of songs popularised by musical theatre, including The Lady Is a Tramp, a song from the 1937 musical Babes in Arms, written by Rodgers and Hart and Luck Be a Lady, composed by Frank Loesser in 1950 for the musical Guys and Dolls.

Astley also treated the crowd to a modern classic, Tom Misch’s It Runs Through Me, which the brass section relished playing.

The star had the whole crowd up again after playing the introduction of Crazy Love by Beyoncé and again when he teased the audience with a false start to Never Gonna Give You Up.

“You can bugger off and get your taxi boats now,” he joked before launching into a full rendition of the song to which he had the crowd singing and dancing along.

He finished the night to rapturous applause before taking a selfie with his band and the audience.

For the late evening’s entertainment, the crowds migrated to the Pure Heaven tent for a DJ set by BBC Radio 2’s Jo Whiley.

There were a number of performances throughout the evening on the festival’s RISE stage and Bedouin tent, and earlier in the evening, festivalgoers enjoyed a comedy set by stand-up and impressionist Matt Forde.

Tonight, (Saturday), the headline act is Hacienda Classical.

A full report and pictures from the festival will appear in next week’s Henley Standard.