Brick-Red:
Fans had to wait until the very end to hear Rick Astley’s iconic hit as the singer played Glastonbury for the first time on Saturday.
The 57-year-old’s set included a cover of Harry Styles’ As It Was, while he also showed off his drumming skills on AC/DC’s Highway To Hell.
Astley had opened the afternoon show with another of his 80s hits, Together Forever, and also treated the audience to songs including Whenever You Need Somebody and new track Dippin My Feet.
The mass singalong to his classic Never Gonna Give You Up - which has 1.4 billion YouTube hits and sparked the Rickrolling meme - was left to the last song.
Astley’s Glastonbury is not done however, as indie band Blossoms confirmed he would join them to perform songs by The Smiths.
Mint:
The Woodsies tent – once named the John Peel tent – fills a good 45 minutes in advance. Blossoms and Astley may seem like an unlikely friendship but they share an affection for well-spirited cheese; a love of throwback fun and a freedom from needing to prove any hipster credentials. And what could be a greater RickRoll than the idea that Astley can so convincingly portray these dour anthems of self-loathing just as smoothly as he did Never Gonna Give You Up on the Pyramid hours prior, nailing registers both nasal and falsetto? What with the quiff, boxy suit and gladioli-wafting gestures, anyone outside the tent might be forgiven for thinking it was the real deal … or at very least a particularly compelling episode of Stars in Their Eyes.
Though they arrive nearly 25 minutes late, we get all the hits: This Charming Man, Bigmouth Strikes Again, Ask, Panic and more. Blossoms, a band who don’t always get the most critical cred in their day job, can reap it here for being extremely tight musicians, with drummer Joe Donavan deserving particular mention for making lightly dextrous work of the material without showboating. It’s clear that this is Astley’s ship, though, and in the spirit of the occasion, he proceeds to speak of festival libations an awful lot, contemplating the weekend’s future drinks with all the joviality of a generous father of the bride.
Never having been a fan of either Rick Astley or the Smiths - I was, at best, amused by the former and indifferent to the latter - but having watched the video on this item on the BBC news website:
where the now 57-year-old Rick was taken backstage and proved a likeable companion, I decided to give both BBC presentations a viewing:
The energetic “hits” performance was pleasant enough for a willing audience in the blazing sunshine but the “Smiths” session in a tent was a revelation. Blossoms are a very, very good band and Rick slipped easily into his “alter ego”. The audience may have been initially just curious but Rick soon won them (and me) over with his low-key but highly competent “interpretation” and they were soon singing along.
Surprisingly satisfactory … 
