One is best known for his slew of 1980s hits, rejuvenated by the infamous Rick Roll meme, while the other is famous for whipping up traditional cuisine while judging The Great British Bakeoff. However, in 2018, Rick Astley and Mary Berry converged for an unlikely partnership which resulted in the then-82-year-old Berry (89) playing drums (to put it loosely) in front of a 23,000-strong Camp Bestival crowd in Dorset, UK.
The whole thing came about after the Never Gonna Give You Up star was given a cooking lesson from the British institution, who was filming her Quick Cooking series at the same event. Astley then decided to return the favour by showing her some grooves.
This week, BBC Radio 4 aired a previously-broadcasted episode of comedian Joe Lycett’s show, Obsessions, where Mary Berry was asked about the experience. “Mary…” Lycett asks, “At a concert in 2018 you played drums for Rick Astley. Who next, Slipknot, U2 or back to the Wu-Tang Clan?”
“That was one of the highlights, actually." Berry explains. "He came and made muffins…Anyway, Rick Astley was very sporting. Then he said to me “Would you like to play the drums?” or “Have you ever played the drums?”. I said, no. He said “Well, I’m on stage tonight and I’d love to show you how to do it. Just come along in the afternoon’.
“So, I went on the stage in the afternoon and there was just grass in front. It looked so restful in the afternoon. He was teaching me, he was a good teacher and I quite enjoyed it. He kept saying ‘You’re a natural!’’. I was not a natural.
“He said, ‘Well, you’ll have to come on tonight at the real show’. I told him I couldn’t walk on, so I was put on the stage with the drums on a mobile [drum riser], I was wheeled on. There were 23,000 people all shouting 'Mary!'.
"That was enough to frighten the life out of me. I played the drums and everybody was very kind. I got off stage and I drank half-a-pint of white wine…well, you need it.”
Since then, Astley, who has previously sat-in with Foo Fighters on vocals for covers of Never Gonna Give You Up, has remained active, teaming up with Blossoms for a string of Smiths covers gigs, and releasing his latest album, Are We There Yet? In 2023. Meanwhile, the official video for Never Gonna Give You Up has recently surpassed 1.5 billion views on YouTube.
