I am open minded and saw Rick play on his own band's tour of the States in 2018 at a smaller venue. He has a great voice and always has, but his onstage persona is as an extroverted R&B pop 'n soul man.
No doubt he has the ability to sing a Smiths' song like This Charming Man on a superficial exuberant level, however, he's wearing thin after a few seconds of Heaven Knows. I can only imagine how lackluster songs like The Queen is Dead and others would seem without the true intent of speaking out against royalty, schoolmasters, a cruel meat industry and others coming from his voice.
Rick has done fine on the UK charts the last few years
https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/29941/rick-astley/ with two new albums of his own material and additional singles with a Best of. I can only logically suppose that he's been bribed to do this by the music industry in an attempt to siphon fans away from Moz when I've seen the massive amounts of money they've already spent on producing just one Simpsons episode to mock and deride him. I don't think this will turn out well for anyone but Moz and his fans who know his true worth. The music industry can't replicate a singer like him without people knowing the difference. He is a real human speaking words he means, and the music industry will learn that is priceless. If not with these two shows then another time. It's really too bad Rick is associating himself with this monstrosity of shows, and I don't know much about the story behind the LotFIP photo, but then again, it doesn't completely surprise me that Astley is participating in this.
in every single housebrau blog/ipod in existence
www.morrissey-solo.com
impersonating the vocalist of The Smiths Family since 1988. This is hilarious...I'm in!
www.independent.co.uk
The malicious intent is crystal clear.
vanyaland.com
