Live Review: Rick Astley, Wa Wa Nee

The lights went down and Wa Wa Nee's Paul Gray thrust his red keytar into the air in an act of '80s devotion. The French would be envious of cheese this rich and full, but damn it was good. While tonight's warm up was mostly a Nee reconstruction with lots of stand-ins for the original members (sorry, couldn't help myself), the tunes, as well as choice period covers like Van Halen's Jump, stood up. From here on in security gave up getting people to sit down.

Soon after, Gray and his band took a backseat to provide the house band for the main attraction. Having swapped his '80s wave for a Tintin-like front spike these days, Rick Astley, now 46, is all grown up but still quite the spunk. A little bit of this reviewer's childhood died when he said 'fuck' after his first song though ('80s pop tarts don't swear, do they?), but we're not in 1987 anymore. Sporting a three-piece suit and bouncing around like a puppy dog, Astley looked joyous but real – happy to acknowledge that most of the room, like him, got here riding on a simpler time by kicking off with Together Forever.

The set was a mixture of nostalgia and experience and the most striking thing was that despite becoming a human punchline in a trench coat (Rickrolling, anyone?), damn the man can still sing. His Stock, Aitken, Waterman material from the '80s didn't always let him show it, but when Astley went the full Buble with When I Fall In Love, we got a snifter. Of course, Astley was doing the smooth thing long ago and his white boy Motown was great too (reclaiming a Temptations cover he did in the '80s and restoring it to its proper glory tonight – again, in fine, fine voice). He even took the drums for a cover of AC/DC – now you don't see or hear that every day.

Also striking was how damn funny the man is – playing with the band and the house, calling the soundman 'love' as he asked for better levels (“It's taken me 23 years to get here, I wanna get it fucking right”) and letting an enthusiastic fan get up and daggy dance and sing with him. He was so taken with some young lads down the front (three who were wearing Astley T-shirts and a fourth in an Iron Maiden shirt, just, for you know, cred), that he got them up for the grand finale of Never Gonna Give You Up to dance and kick off proceedings. Daggy dancing along with them, he sent it up just enough. Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye.