House Hunting presents: Pop Pub Dubs with Rick Astley

So what better way to launch than with the housewives honey Rick Astley rickrollin’ R$N. Ain’t gonna go on about his billion-viewed omnipotent pop weapon ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ though it’s still worth a shout for the spine-tingling chills of the e-number ‘Escape From Newton Mix’ just wait till the vox drops to get you rickrushing… Nah instead we’re gonna get more obscure for the Rick Astley allure with ‘Don’t Say Goodbye’ on a bootie outta Italy which totally caught me off guard when pulling outta a Hi-NRG haul as I clocked edit extraordinaires The Latin Rascals aka Albert Cabrera and Tony Moran were on the remix. I could wax lyrical about these splice’n’dice dons for days with their killer Kiss megamixes and razor-sharp edits for production powerhouses such as Arthur Baker and Shep Pettibone. Though their sonic spectrum more synonymous with early electro and freestyle flava, they did mix with the stars too including Bryan Ferry, Duran Duran, Hall & Oates, Madonna and Pet Shop Boys all cut with surgical precision for pop perfection.

Bringin’ it back to the record and for the first minute the Latin Rascals remix sounding promising with their signature scattershot edits but just as we’re gettin’ into the groove it all goes top of the pops with Rick’s sickly sweet serenades drowning in Stock, Aitken & Waterman saturation before building up to a crescendo of cut’n’paste pop crooning that clears the pop pub carpet quick all back to the bandit… Gotta admit though you can’t get that ‘Don’t Say Goodbye Girl’ hook outta your head stickier than a Skol Special Strength beer mat!

Hang on a min though… We’ve got some pop pub dub trivia poppin’ up as I’ve spotted an apostrophe in ‘Latin Rascal’s’ on the dodgy bootie label so hold up call the grammar police does this diggin’ detection mean a case of mistaken identity with ‘Wild Boy’ who’s credited on the mix masquerading as them or do I just need another pint? Last orders so yeah let’s get the hard stuff in with a round of Taboo and let loose with ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ back on the pub jukebox see you down the front…

So in true R$N fashion I’ve launched a pop pub dub column but kicked off with Rick Astley in full flow. So someone out there tap into the Latin Rascals spirit and dilute the Stock, Aitken & Waterman production with some pop chop-up edits and vox overdubs – maybe motivation to launch a Ransom Note Records Pop Pub Dubs spinoff sub-label you heard it here first…