Nightmares on Wax reworked Smokers Delight and In a Space Outta Sound with a live band, strings and a choir for one night at the Royal Albert Hall.
Nightmares on Wax, Warp Records’ longest-serving artist, returned to the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington for one night on Thursday 12 March 2026. He marked 30 years of Smokers Delight and 20 of In a Space Outta Sound.
George Evelyn was born in Leeds, where his father and sister introduced him to the soul music of Quincy Jones and Curtis Mayfield. He formed Nightmares on Wax in 1988 as a group with John Halnon, and later Kevin Harper.
The debut album, A Word of Science, came out on Warp in 1991, and Smokers Delight followed in 1995. In 2005 he started his own label, Wax On, and released In a Space Outta Sound the next year.
Evelyn now lives in Ibiza. His records draw on dub, soul, hip-hop, electronica and soundsystem culture, and both albums were reworked for the Hall.
He played them with a full live band, a string quartet, a choir and guest vocalists. The show ran in two halves from 19:30, with a 30-minute interval, and ended at about 22:00.