Rick Astley announces October 2012 UK Tour

80’s Pop Icon and multi-million selling artist Rick Astley has announced a full UK Tour for October this year.

Rick Astley is a talent whose career has spanned over 25 years. Rick Astley has sold in excess of 19 million records and has a string of 8 consecutive number 1s under-his-belt.

His amazing career began in 1987. Shocked by the powerful, mature soulful voice of Rick aged just 21; the UK sent his debut single "Never Gonna Give You Up" to the top of the charts within 2 weeks of its release. The rest of the world soon followed suit with "Never Gonna Give You Up" reaching Number 1 in 16 other countries including most of Europe, Japan, United States and Australia. The following 2 years saw Rick continue to dominate the charts around the globe. In the UK, Rick was in the Top 40 every week for the first 6 months of 

his career. It was Britain's largest selling single of that year.

The album "Whenever You Need Somebody" entered the UK album charts at Number 1 and sold over 15.2 million copies worldwide, making him the top selling British act of the year. It was a similar success story in the USA, as Rick became one of the few British artists to crack their market. Rick's American success was reinforced with a second Number 1 single, "Together Forever". "It Would Take a Strong Strong Man" became another Top 10 single and the album also reached a position within the Top 10 selling close to 2 million copies.
After that Rick took a well deserved break but surprised British fans in 2004 with an 8 date tour which comprised of 'classic' songs from past decades including Sinatra, Bacharach and The Carpenters as well as a few from Mr Astley's musical resume and soon after more dates followed.

In 2008 debut single ‘Never Gonna Give You Up,' became one of the most viewed pop video of all time on YouTube with over 51 million views to date due to the unstoppable phenomenon of ‘Rickrolling’. This has earned him a nomination at the MTV Europe Music Awards for ‘BEST ACT EVER’. 2012 marks the 25 Anniversary of Rick’s first single.

More recently Rick opened up for Peter Kay’s record breaking the Tour That Does Tour Tour and will be appearing at Tatton Park amongst other outdoor events this summer before embarking on an seven date tour later this year:

October 2012
Wednesday 17th       Manchester Academy 2             0161 832 1111
Thursday 18th            Birmingham O2 Academy2           0844 477 2000
Friday 19th                 Liverpool O2 Academy2                0844 477 2000
Sunday 21st               Glasgow Oran Mor                                     0844 499 9990
Monday 22nd                       Sheffield O2 Academy2                 0844 477 2000
Wednesday 24th       London O2 Academy Islington     0844 477 2000          
Thursday 25th             Bournemouth The Old Fire Station           0844 477 2000

Tickets are £22.50 (£25.00 Manchester / London)
On sale Friday 27 July at 9am – www.gigsandtours.com/tour/Rick-Astley / 0844 811 0051

Rick Astley – The Ultimate Collection – out now
www.rickastley.co.uk              www.facebook.com/RickAstley