EVERYONE has their guilty pleasure. Rick Astley has always been my (not so) guilty one

When he shimmied his way into the Top 40 in 1987, those catchy beats of his Stock Aiken and Waterman-produced hit Never Gonna Give You Up and his boyish good looks had the 13-year-old me hooked.

In the Nineties, at university, Rick’s cassette albums sat proudly alongside my CDs of Blur, Oasis and Pulp and in the intervening years have been wedged between vinyl treasures by The Beatles and Led Zeppelin.

After a long hiatus, Rick Astley celebrated his 50th birthday last year by releasing a long-awaited album, aptly named 50, which shot straight to the number one spot in the charts, now followed by a largely sold-out tour, which came to Harrogate last Saturday night.

While the last three decades have added fine lines around my eyes and the odd grey hair, the years have been good to Rick. He used his impossibly still boyish looks and magnificent soulful voice to whip the audience of mainly ladies of a certain age into a dancing frenzy, turning the seated auditorium into a Saturday night disco.

His well-paced set ranged from old hits such as Together Forever and Hold Me In Your Arms to songs from 50, plus some fan requests (which gave us all time to catch our breath).

There were some totally unexpected surprises too, when he mounted the drums and, alongside his band, belted out a cover of AC/DC’s Highway To Hell and a rave version of 1980s' hit Take Me To Your Heart (which even had the bemused husbands up on their feet), before sending us off with a joyous version of Never Gonna Give You Up.

I’m glad I never gave up on you, Rick.

Rick Astley will play at Dalby Forest, near Pickering, on June 23 as part of the Forestry Commission's Forest Live summer concert programme. Tickets: 03000 680400 or at forestry.gov.uk/forestry/beeh-aenegp