Rick Astley faces chart challenge from new boy Ren

A Welsh music artist is in a battle with 80s pop legend Rick Astley to reach Number One in the UK's official album chart.

Ren Gill's release Sick Boi is neck-and-neck with Astley in the midweek charts - with the voice behind the hit Never Gonna Give You Up ahead by just 400 sales.

Ren said winning the coveted spot would be a "triumph" for an independent musician who does not even have a record label.

Perhaps even more remarkable, the 33-year-old from Anglesey has spent the last year living in Canada undergoing medical treatment.

"I'm just excited. I think if I am to manage to land a number one record it will mean a lot to me," said Ren in a post to fans on social media.

"I think I will be one of the only artists to have done that while going through medical treatment the whole time without doing a single show to promote the record.

"So it will be like a triumph for me over illness.

"Number two [in the chart] will still feel like that."

Ren has been undergoing intensive treatment in Calgary after being diagnosed with the tick-borne infection Lyme's Disease, after a long period of living with the autoimmune condition that he said left him virtually bedridden.

It followed a promising career in his 20s after making Brighton his base, where he was signed to a major record label. But he was dropped after becoming ill.

Since then he has rebuilt his career as both a rap artist and powerful songwriter, drawing on both his illness, and also his own battles with mental health issues.

In June he made a rare return to his home on Anglesey to present a cheque for £21,000 to RNLI volunteers, in recognition of their efforts to find his best friend who took his own life in 2010.

The death of Joe Hughes, 19, has played a key role in Ren's career - with his first album Freckled Angel named in his honour, and a track describing Ren's emotional pain at the loss on the new album.

It has also prompted him to call for more open conversations around suicide and mental health.

Without the music industry behind him, he has managed to build a YouTube following of over a million people online, while one song released at the end of last year has well-over 15 million individual views.

He has described his fans as a "community" who come together for each other, as much as his music.

"I love them. They are helping me do what I do," he added.

The final chart position for Ren and Astley will be known on Friday evening, with official sales until midnight on Thursday evening counted.

Ren said if Astley - who is signed to the international music group BMG - got the top slot, there would be "no hard feelings".

"I actually love Rick Astley. I actually couldn't think of a better person to come second to - because I think it's funny. It's a surreal situation to be in," he said.

After finding fame in the 1980s, Astley later became known for the so-called Rickroll, where unsuspecting individuals are invited to click a link to something online, only to find it takes them to the video for the singer's first hit Never Gonna Give You Up.

On learning Astley was 400 sales ahead of him in the midweek count, Ren added: "I have basically been Rickrolled harder than anybody in the history of people who have ever been Rickrolled."