Rick Astley performed a Harry Styles cover and also showed off his drumming skills as he made his debut at the Glastonbury music festival.
The singer, 57, opened the Pyramid Stage on Saturday, and treated crowds to some of his chart-topping hits, as well as some new music.
Dressed in a dusky rose coloured suit, he opened the set with his hit song from the 1980s Together Forever, and later launched into a cover of Styles’ As It Was.
Taking to the drums to play AC/DC’s Highway To Hell, Astley told the audience: “When I was a kid, my first experience of being in a band was playing the drums.
“I’ve had many dreams in my life. One of my dreams has been to perform at Glastonbury – that dream has come true today.
“Maybe even possibly bigger, which I don’t know how it possibly could, is for me to play drums to the first record that I learned to play the drums to.
“I was a 15-year-old kid in my dad’s greenhouse, and I played this album to death, I broke this record learning the drums to it. Ladies and gentlemen, will you please join in, this is AC/DC.”
Bet not many people had Rick Astley blasting out AC/DC’s Highway To Hell while playing drums on their #Glastonbury2023 bingo card when tickets went on sale last October. Mighty. KS pic.twitter.com/28B1lexxaf
— Glastonbury Live (@GlastoLive) June 24, 2023
Other songs featured included his song Whenever You Need Somebody from 1987 as well as new song Dippin My Feet, from his upcoming ninth studio album titled Are We There Yet?, due for release in October.
Following his performance, which he ended with his 1987 hit Never Gonna Give You Up, Indie band Blossoms confirmed Astley would be joining them on the newly-named Woodsies stage at 6pm.
His performance on the Pyramid stage comes ahead of US rockers Guns N’ Roses headlining in the evening.
Guns N’ Roses, featuring original members Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan, will headline the main stage after reuniting in 2015, and are expected to play a number of their classic songs including Paradise City, Sweet Child O’ Mine and Welcome To The Jungle.
Scottish superstar Lewis Capaldi and Lizzo will both take to the main stage ahead of Guns N’ Roses’s set.
Festivalgoers have so far been spared wet weather, with the festival conditions to remain dry on Saturday with “plenty of sunshine developing this afternoon” and temperatures of up to 26C, according to the Met Office.
Sunday is set to be “warm and largely dry, with sunny spells” for most of the day at the festival, held at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset.
There is an “increasing risk of a shower” on Sunday afternoon – the final day of the festival – but the temperatures are still expected to reach 25C.
Actress Tilda Swinton joined composer and pianist Max Richter on the Park stage on Saturday to provide spoken word alongside his classical set, with Richter telling the crowd: “It’s great to be here, really great to be here. It’s my first time playing here and it’s just an honour to be opening up this stage today.”
Elsewhere, Labour’s shadow climate secretary Ed Miliband joined a panel in a talk called One Minute To Midnight: Can Politics Deliver On Climate Action?
Mr Miliband quoted Martin Luther King as he joined the debate on political action to tackle climate change and was met with cheers as he was introduced to a packed Left Field tent at Worthy Farm.
Friday saw Arctic Monkeys close out a packed day of music, with surprise appearances at the festival from Foo Fighters, Hozier and actress Cate Blanchett.
