Rick Astley Tickets

Very nice and simple performance no flashy effects just warm close experience. Very simple honest and fun concert. Thank you for coming to New York Rick!!! Been Ur fan since forever. So glad that you are back.

He sounded just like he did in the '80s! Played all his early hits + some songs from the new 50 album.

Rick Astley’s return to the U.S. concert stage at Town Hall on October 6 was a landmark date for longtime fans. I count myself in that group, having seen him twice in his heyday (Radio City and Jones Beach, 1989) and at a rollicking ’80s revival concert in Glasgow in 2008. As at that Scotland gig, in New York Thursday night neither his looks nor his voice was any worse for the wear – quite the opposite, in fact. The Town Hall concert featured a considerable share of joy. Astley has a great attitude toward his unreal experience as an ’80s pop star, and seems to genuinely share with his fans an affection for the music that made him famous. The only American hit from the ’80s and early ’90s missing from his set, unfortunately, was the ballad “Hopelessly,” one of my favorites. Otherwise all the familiar stuff, from “It Would Take a Strong, Strong Man” to (of course the finale) “Never Gonna Give You Up” brought the house to its feet. His backup band was good, and backup singer Dawn Joseph is sensational. Rick was uncommonly generous to her in terms of solo mike time (the movie “20 Feet from Stardom” came to my mind). One of the highlights of the concert took place during the bridge of “Cry for Help,” when the two riffed on several ’80s non-Astley hits, with Joseph doing a great Whitney Houston. But the oldies were only part of the concert; most of the rest was devoted to cuts from 50, Astley’s recent #1 UK album, so called because he turned that age this year. The surprise here was not that Rick Astley can write some good pop melodies – those who have followed his career already knew that – but the lyrical content. As he noted quickly and offhandedly, there is lot of religion in it. To be sure, he has always had an affinity for gospel as a music form, so I’m not sure whether or not it’s because he has had a midlife conversion. But those who are promoting 50 in the U.S. might want to try to reach the Christian pop market, which is sizable. Rick might pick up a new generation of fans very different from his old fans, like this one, who may not relate to this latest direction. There was one other discordant note for me. When we saw Rick in Europe eight years ago, he went out of his way to acknowledge the significant portion of his fan base who, like me, are gay men. While not as large a fan base for him as the very vocal women who remember him as their teen idol (and who are great fun as fellow concertgoers), it was still a noticeable segment of the Town Hall crowd. At any rate, unlike in Glasgow, in New York City, of all places, Astley rather aggressively pushed the notion that these women are his entire fan base, and that any man who happened to be present was only there because his wife or girlfriend had dragged him. There were several variations on this theme over the course of the evening that we found really offputting. Perhaps the two points mentioned above are interrelated, or perhaps they are just related to something that was very much a positive note to the night: Rick Astley seems absolutely carefree up there, having a ball. Unfettered by the pop stardom that came for him too young, at 50 he is now making a point of having fun, and doing just what he feels like doing and saying. If that takes him to places where some of his longtime fans can’t follow, it’s a bit sad, but such is life, I guess. The guy still gives a great concert.

One of the best nights ever! Rick Astley was fantastic. Loved hearing the 80's hits along with the new music from his new album 50. Hope he comes back to NYC soon!!!

Rick had great hits back in the 80's and 90's but he is BACK with a great album with NEW songs. He was so entertaining in his concert at the NYC Town Hall and then took the time afterwards to meet with fans to sign items and take pictures. I hope he has a great rest of the tour!

This was my VERY first Rick Astley concert. I thought that it was going to be an okay concert, but it wasn't. It was off the hook!!!! I stood up the whole time. He sang the current songs as well as his 80s and 90s classics (he still got it).

As an FYI, this review is a copy of the one posted on the "Radio Creme Brulee" blog by me. To say 2016 has paved the way for a full circle for late 80s (and early 90s) pop star Rick Astley would be quite the understatement. At the age of 50, hot on the heels of his 2nd UK #1 album (his first #1 album since his groundbreaking debut) aptly titled “50“, Rick Astley is back on American stages and more importantly, back in the hearts of ardent fans. His resurgence has been a slow one though. In fact, it dates back 15 years. After six years in the limelight, Rick Astley went into voluntary retirement. The relatively lacklustre performance of his 4th album “Body and Soul” (despite the fact that its second single “Hopelessly” charted in the US top 40) is a likely catalyst for that decision. In 2001, instead of picking up where he left off as the rebranded soulboy that he had morphed into in the early 90s, he briefly flirted with his pop roots albeit within a cloak of modernity. The end-product was the album “Keep it turned on“. The timing of its release, at least in theory, seemed wise given that 2001 was the 4th year of the 80s revival. Sadly, its limited release in Continental Europe ensured that Rick Astley’s popularity (whatever little he regained through the minor hit “Sleeping” off the “Keep it turned on” album) would be limited to a rather narrow realm of the consumer market for pop music. A few years later, he released an album of covers titled “Portrait“. This album, rather unsurprisingly went unnoticed. 2007 marked an inflection point for Rick Astley when his signature hit single “Never Gonna Give You Up” become a viral hit via a phenomenon popularly referred to as “Rickrolling”. While his status as yesteryear’s star had not changed, his signature single had become an essential and ubiquitous element of contemporary pop culture. He started performing live again at festivals along with his contemporaries. The one thing that became obvious to those that paid attention to this gradual resurgence of Rick Astley is that he wasn’t trying to stage a comeback. He just did what he felt like and had fun with it. His musical endeavors did not reek of desperation. That attitude along with his charisma and obvious comfort with himself at interviews made him increasingly likeable with every subsequent piece of media exposure. It made people more welcoming of his passive (but not conscious) overtures to fans and skeptics in the media. Towards the end of 2013, he seemed ready to release an album titled “My Red Book“. In fact, one of our guest bloggers reviewed the limited release of the album in 2013 for our blog. Despite, the album’s lead single “Superman” being released in late 2013, the album never saw the light of day (although there are a few copies floating around on Ebay). It is not clear what effect any of these events had on the British success of Rick Astley’s album “50“. The greatest end-result of his rather surprising return to the top of the album charts, is that it laid the foundation for live concerts in the US. I had the privilege of attending his concert at Town Hall in New York City on October 6, 2016. This was his second American concert in the last 25 years. Rick Astley was undoubtedly faced with the challenge of reconciling two goals that were at odds with each other. The primary goal is to promote the new album “50” but after 25 years of being away from American stages, he was acutely aware of his obligation (probably self-imposed) to fans that attended to hear songs that formed the soundtrack to their youth. He made this awareness very obvious when he said “but you guys don’t care about the new stuff. You just want to hear the old stuff” with a huge smile on his face. Fortunately, Rick rose to the occasion and struck a near optimal balance between the old and the new. In fact, other veteran artists promoting new and relatively obscure material can take a page out of Rick’s playbook when they put together setlists for their concerts. Rick ensured that he flitted constantly between the old and the new. As a result, there were no lulls or “filler” sections in the concert. In fact, Rick made a conscious effort not to perform two consecutive tracks that were obsure. His opening track was “This Old House” (from the new album) but he quickly followed it with “Together Forever” – his second US #1 single from his debut album “Whenever you need somebody“. He maintained this balance through the entire length of the concert. rickastley-50thThe first emotion that many in the crowd must have felt during the concert was one of envy. Rick Astley has barely aged. He still looks like a fountain of youth despite being a father to a 24-year old daughter. His voice sounds better than ever. His personality bubbles with a blend of humor, charisma, gratitude, and comfort. His banter with the audience was almost as entertaining as his confident and powerful vocal delivery on each of the songs in the evening. In recent interviews, Astley revealed that one of the frustrations of being a product of the Stock Aitken and Waterman era (popularly referred to as SAW) in his early years in the music business is that the focus of the musical effort was almost exclusively on creating a record as opposed to playing live. It seemed that at the time, being a pop star was at odds with being a live musician. Fortunately, at his Town Hall performance, he was able to bring songs from the first album (whose recorded versions were drenched in hallmark SAW studio gloss) to life with beautiful live renditions – especially on tracks such as “It would take a strong man” and “When I Fall In Love” ( a Nat King Cole cover). The electric guitar solo on “It would take a strong man” is particularly noteworthy. rickastley-holdmeinyourarms-liveThrough the introductions to his songs, he gave the audience a fascinating glimpse into his journey as a musician. He talked about his early years playing covers when he introduced his version of “Uptown Funk” (originally performed by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars). While introducing “Cry For Help” (a US top 10 hit from his third album titled “Free“), he talked about the gospel choir singing and trying to encourage a man who was down on his luck while recording the song. He provided a little peep-hole view into his interaction with his daughter while performing a mashup of a track from his second album with Rihanna’s “We found love“. But his most surprising performance showcasing his musical journey was the performance of “Highway to hell” after the encore. It featured Rick Astley on the drums and vocals simultaneously. Many of his ardent fans know that his foray into music was as a drummer. At this concert, they got to witness something that only locals in his hometown in Northern England had the privilege of watching back in the early to mid 80s. The musical highlights of the evening were the achingly beautiful “Cry for help“, “It would take a strong man“, “When I fall in love“, “Hold me in your arms“, “Pray For Me” (the song from the new album “50” that evoked the most enthusiastic response from the audience), and rather unsurprisingly “Never gonna give you up” – his signature hit single and final song of the evening. He knew the final song was the moment people were waiting most for and he celebrated the end of that anticipation just as much as the crowd did. rickastley-keep-singingFor all the praise that I have heaped on Rick Astley , I would not be doing this review justice if I did not highlight the concert’s obvious potential improvement areas. Rick Astley added a fantastic dimension to the concert by taking the audience through his journey as a musician and popstar – and for that he deserves his fair share of credit. Unfortunately, there were two noteworthy omissions from his setlist that may have undermined the completeness of this exemplary endeavor of his. Including a song from his “Keep it turned on” album would have undoubtedly piqued the curiosity of his audience. It would have been an opportunity to showcase his re-visitation of his pop roots in 2001. This was an important piece of his musical journey and the failure to include it was a missed opportunity. His second missed opportunity stemmed from his exclusion of his Adult-Alternative flavored 2010 single “Lights Out“. He could have displayed yet another facet of his musical evolution. There were two other omissions from his setlist that have nothing to do with this musical journey. The songs are “Don’t say goodbye” (from his debut album) and “My Arms Keep Missing you” (a b-side that was eventually released as a single only in parts of continental Europe). He has performed these songs at live gigs in Asia and he brings them to life very well in a concert setting. Rick Astley is a reminder of an era in which a popstar could be a small-town talented musician that looked like the ginger-haired “boy next door” with a baritone voice that seemed almost incongruous with his look. His concert explored milestones in the journey of that boy from Newton-Le-Willows (Lancashire) to upper echelons of pop stardom and the audience was better off for it. I am just thrilled Rick Astley is back. He has been sorely missed.

At 50 Rick was charming, in great shape and even better voice. A nice balance of hits, new songs and a few covers Rick made it a solid and entertaining concert. Hoping he tours the US more often.