After releasing three albums for RCA records between 1988 and 1993, Rick Astley retired from the music industry at the age of 27, deciding that family life was more important to him. During his time out of the music business, his daughter Emilie grew up, and for much of the 1990's and early-2000's, Astley remained out of the public eye, although he carried on writing, co-composing 'Mission Statement' for former Marillion singer Fish's 1999 solo album 'Raingods With Zippos' After seven years out of the limelight he returned to the music industry, signing a co-publishing deal with Polydor, and recording a new album, 'Keep It Turned On', which was released in Continental Europe in late 2001. The album featured the single 'Sleeping', which became a minor club hit, thanks to a set of remixes from the US house producer Todd Terry. When his 2002 'Greatest Hits' compilation sold over 100,000 copies with minimal promotion, he decided to tour again, and went out on the road in 2004, which led to him signing a record contract with Sony BMG. In March 2005 he released the album 'Portrait', in which he covered many classic standards such as 'Vincent', 'Nature Boy' and 'Close To You', but both Astley and Sony BMG were unhappy with the result, so the album was poorly promoted, yet it still managed to reach No. 26 on the UK Albums Chart. In September 2008, Astley was nominated for the "Best Act Ever" award at the MTV Europe Music Awards, and his fans started a campign to push to make him the winner of the award, and to get MTV to invite him to the awards ceremony. On 7 November, following a massive internet campaign by fans, Astley won the award in Liverpool, but was not there in person to receive it. On the back of this, 'Never Gonna Give You Up' (which had recently become an Internet meme via Rickrolling) returned to the UK charts, peaking at No. 73 during the Christmas period. He was also a special guest throughout Peter Kay's 2010 Spring tour, and to mark the occasion he released a new single, 'Lights Out', on his own label in June 2010, but it only managed to scrape into the top 100 of the UK singles chart. An album was due to follow in January 2013, titled 'My Red Book', including the 'Lights Out' and 'Superman' singles, but it was ultimately canceled for unknown reasons. A couple of the songs later turned up on his 2016 album '50', but here is that original cancelled record from 2013.
Track listing
01 Superman
02 I Like The Sun
03 Let It Rain
04 Sailing
05 Saddest Day
06 Lights Out
07 Goodbye But Not The End
08 The Bitch
09 A Letter
10 Josie
