Rick Astley: ‘There’s a beer inspired by me, Astley’s Northern Hop’

From brewing tea for Kylie to brewing hipster beer in Copenhagen, the singer tells us about his unexpected life in food and drink

My parents had another son before me, called David, who passed away, and I don’t think they ever got over it. My mum moved to my gran’s house a mile away and I saw her often – she’d sometimes come to the school gate at lunchtime. I lived in my father’s house with their other children and we had a housekeeper, Mrs Hill, who’d come and made our breakfast and tea. The food was northern and pretty basic.

My earliest memories are of being a terrible eater. I would eat ham sandwiches, but not a lot else. By the time I was a teenager it was Pot Noodles big time. It was only when I went abroad to promote my records that I got fed up with asking, at best, for steak and chips, and I opened up to the possibilities of food. “Spaghetti vongole? It looks pretty strange, but I’ll try it!”