BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND– 80’s pop star Rick Astley once again pulled a fast one on his fan base and maliciously duped those attending his concert at the Northampton Balloon Festival this last weekend.
After enjoying a soulful cover of Nat King Cole’s “When I Fall In Love”, his devotees were eagerly expecting a smooth transition into the fan favorite “Together Forever”. Instead, Astley caught everyone by surprise when, without warning, he launched into the 1987 chart topper “Never Gonna Give You Up”, leaving the audience red-faced, collectively realizing that they had just been fooled.
The 800-plus crowd shook their heads in disbelief and embarrassment, having fallen victim to the most iconic of bait-and-switch pranks, the rickroll.
The rickroll is an infamous Internet meme where the unwary target is urged to click a hyperlink to view a particular topic but instead is redirected to Rick Astley’s hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up“. The first Internet rickroll occurred in 2007 on a video game message board where a link to the Rick Astley video was claimed to be the much awaited trailer of Grand Theft Auto IV.
The joke soon spread like wildfire, becoming an Internet phenomenon. A poll conducted by SurveyUSA revealed that by the end of 2008 an estimated 18 million American adults had been rickrolled online.
Long before the Internet existed, the first known instance of the rickroll occurred in 1987 when Astley, to the surprise of his producers, secretly recorded the song onto his multi-million selling debut album Whenever You Need Somebody.
“I remember when the first boxes of the record arrived from reproduction,” said Mike Stock who produced the album. “Rick asked me to load up track number one and was giggling for some reason.”
Stock expected to hear the previously released single “When You Gonna“, which they all agreed would be the first song on the album.
“And then what do I hear? That’s right, this God-awful song, “Never Gonna Give You Up. I was so pissed. The entire production team and Astley were just laughing hysterically.”
Considerable efforts were made by Stock and his team at RCA Records to ensure they didn’t get rickrolled again on the 1988 album Hold Me in Your Arms. “Astley tried to sneak the track on six or seven times, but we were able to keep it from getting on the album,” said Stock, admitting that it became an exhausting project and vowed never to work with Astley again.
Flash forward more than 20 years to this summer where Astley mischievously continued his annoying prank, but this time in central England at a family festival no less.
“We were all very much enjoying the show,” Oxford resident Celia Thompson said. “I was expecting “Together Forever”, and then POW, rickrolled! Boy, he really got us good.”
The mood of the small outddoor arena quickly changed when Thompson, her friends, and the rest of the crowd began to hear the troublingly familiar lyrics “We’re no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I…..”.
“I couldn’t believe I fell for that…again,” Thompson said, referring to the Music-a-ganza Festival in Bedford last summer when the pop crooner maliciously rickrolled 1,200 fans expecting to hear songs off his most recent album Portrait.
JB Goodbody frequently has thoughts in his head that makes him smile. Were they made public at the moment they poofed into existence, without some form of structured outlet such as satire, these thoughts would cause significant distress among his friends, family and coworkers. This is why he is here. 
It isn’t a Rick Roll if you’re at a Rick Astley concert. If you go to any concert and are surprised when they play their biggest hit, you’re just stupid.
Whooooooosh