Veteran crooner Rick Astley was the butt of all jokes before his performance on the second day of SINGfest 08, simply because he didn’t quite fit in with younger majority of performers.

Most of the members of the audience only know him from Zouk’s ever-popular weekly retro-themed night, Mambo Jambo, where some of his songs, like “Together Forever” are spun.

At press conferences, many of the younger bands like Panic At The Disco and Simple Plan were rather amused when they were asked jokingly how it felt to be performing alongside Rick.

Lostprophets‘ frontman Ian Watkins even mock-sang Rick’s evergreen hit “Never Gonna Give You Up” before screaming, “F*** you, Rick!” during the Lostprophets slot on the first day.

When Rick finally took to the stage dressed to the nines for the open-air concert, the generation gap between him and the T-shirt and jeans crowd became very evident, even to him.

“Boy, it’s hot up here. Who performs in a suit and tie on a night like this?” he asked the crowd.

You do, Uncle Rick.

Photos by Serena Chew.