Daniel Dylan Wray
@danieldylanwray.bsky.social
Write about music & culture & various things for various places, mainly the Guardian. Based in Sheffield. danieldylanwray@gmail.com
https://www.theguardian.com/profile/daniel-dylan-wray
https://www.theguardian.com/profile/daniel-dylan-wray
On Saturday, Stephen Mallinder and Chris Watson played together as Cabaret Voltaire for the first time in 44 years. I was genuinely knocked out by it. Was an outrageously good show that felt like a real privilege to witness. Reviewed for @thequietus.com. thequietus.com/quietus-revi...
An Elated Sense of Unity: The Live Return of Cabaret Voltaire | The Quietus
“For Richard Kirk,” says Stephen Mallinder, as his first words of the evening on stage. A mighty roar erupts inside the former Victorian steel forge in tribute to the late founding member who passed a...
thequietus.com
October 27, 2025 at 10:04 AM
On Saturday, Stephen Mallinder and Chris Watson played together as Cabaret Voltaire for the first time in 44 years. I was genuinely knocked out by it. Was an outrageously good show that felt like a real privilege to witness. Reviewed for @thequietus.com. thequietus.com/quietus-revi...
I like articles that plunge into world's so unknown, alien, confusing and eye-opening, to me, that it feels like you're genuinely speaking a different language / living on a different planet. This very engaging and utterly depressing piece manages to tick all those boxes. harpers.org/archive/2025...
The Goon Squad, by Daniel Kolitz
Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation
harpers.org
October 24, 2025 at 11:22 AM
I like articles that plunge into world's so unknown, alien, confusing and eye-opening, to me, that it feels like you're genuinely speaking a different language / living on a different planet. This very engaging and utterly depressing piece manages to tick all those boxes. harpers.org/archive/2025...
Reposted by Daniel Dylan Wray
As a founder member of Cabaret Voltaire, you might think nothing could match Chris Watson’s first act.
However, he went on to become one of the best sound recordists in the world, travelling the globe with David Attenborough and working on hit shows like Chernobyl.
✍️ @danieldylanwray.bsky.social
However, he went on to become one of the best sound recordists in the world, travelling the globe with David Attenborough and working on hit shows like Chernobyl.
✍️ @danieldylanwray.bsky.social
From ‘sonic shock’ to Attenborough docs: Chris Watson’s 60 years in sound
‘I revelled in discovering hostile or alien noises’
www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk
October 22, 2025 at 3:13 PM
As a founder member of Cabaret Voltaire, you might think nothing could match Chris Watson’s first act.
However, he went on to become one of the best sound recordists in the world, travelling the globe with David Attenborough and working on hit shows like Chernobyl.
✍️ @danieldylanwray.bsky.social
However, he went on to become one of the best sound recordists in the world, travelling the globe with David Attenborough and working on hit shows like Chernobyl.
✍️ @danieldylanwray.bsky.social
I’ve managed to squeeze in a fair bit of niche music into the pages of the Guardian over the years, but especially chuffed with getting to cover the waltzer sound system wars of Hull Fair. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...
Oggy oggy oggy! The donk-tacular dance music of Hull’s huge funfair
With 600,000 people attending, Hull Fair is the UK’s biggest – and has a thrilling but overlooked musical subculture. We follow the blaring soundsystems to meet the DJs and MCs facing off in waltzer b...
www.theguardian.com
October 17, 2025 at 4:08 PM
I’ve managed to squeeze in a fair bit of niche music into the pages of the Guardian over the years, but especially chuffed with getting to cover the waltzer sound system wars of Hull Fair. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...
Reposted by Daniel Dylan Wray
Did you know that we have two world-leading environmental investigative journalists living in Sheffield?
Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor, a married couple, made their names reporting on wildlife crime in Africa and now front hit podcasts such as Buried and Boy Wasted.
✍️ @danieldylanwray.bsky.social
Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor, a married couple, made their names reporting on wildlife crime in Africa and now front hit podcasts such as Buried and Boy Wasted.
✍️ @danieldylanwray.bsky.social
‘I don't know if we’re fearless or just a bit stupid’
The intrepid Sheffield couple taking on global environment crime
www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk
October 11, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Did you know that we have two world-leading environmental investigative journalists living in Sheffield?
Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor, a married couple, made their names reporting on wildlife crime in Africa and now front hit podcasts such as Buried and Boy Wasted.
✍️ @danieldylanwray.bsky.social
Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor, a married couple, made their names reporting on wildlife crime in Africa and now front hit podcasts such as Buried and Boy Wasted.
✍️ @danieldylanwray.bsky.social
Tales From A Hard City is a remarkable, v v funny and overlooked documentary. Celebrating its 30th anniversary, I look at how it's a useful accompanying document to tracing the origins of another Sheffield landmark turning 30 this month: Pulp's Different Class. thequietus.com/culture/film...
How Sheffield Film Tales From A Hard City set the Scene for Pulp's Different Class | The Quietus
Wild Dreams. Cool Ambition. Hard Cash. While these words may sound like something you’d associate with a high-octane blockbuster action flick, in reality they are the tagline to a 1995 documentary abo...
thequietus.com
October 8, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Tales From A Hard City is a remarkable, v v funny and overlooked documentary. Celebrating its 30th anniversary, I look at how it's a useful accompanying document to tracing the origins of another Sheffield landmark turning 30 this month: Pulp's Different Class. thequietus.com/culture/film...
Reposted by Daniel Dylan Wray
“It’s become this indelible thing for Sheffield people now. It’s in the city’s blood.”
Love Threads? If so, you’ll definitely enjoy this piece by @danieldylanwray.bsky.social about new doc Survivors: The Spectre of Threads ahead of its world premiere at the Sheffield Film Festival next weekend.
Love Threads? If so, you’ll definitely enjoy this piece by @danieldylanwray.bsky.social about new doc Survivors: The Spectre of Threads ahead of its world premiere at the Sheffield Film Festival next weekend.
Threads and the making of the Sheffield mind
"The film had genuinely traumatised him in a way that has made him ready for the end of the world at any moment"
www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk
August 23, 2025 at 11:11 AM
“It’s become this indelible thing for Sheffield people now. It’s in the city’s blood.”
Love Threads? If so, you’ll definitely enjoy this piece by @danieldylanwray.bsky.social about new doc Survivors: The Spectre of Threads ahead of its world premiere at the Sheffield Film Festival next weekend.
Love Threads? If so, you’ll definitely enjoy this piece by @danieldylanwray.bsky.social about new doc Survivors: The Spectre of Threads ahead of its world premiere at the Sheffield Film Festival next weekend.
Reposted by Daniel Dylan Wray
A quick update on #JDTwitch -- a new separate fund to raise money for care for others at the hospice he is at has been started by the family, with some of the Crowdfunder proceeds helping to start things there. Full details are here -- JD continues to want to give back to others.
Love to JD Twitch
Keith’s Hospice Tribute Fund
keith-mcivor.muchloved.com
August 20, 2025 at 8:03 PM
A quick update on #JDTwitch -- a new separate fund to raise money for care for others at the hospice he is at has been started by the family, with some of the Crowdfunder proceeds helping to start things there. Full details are here -- JD continues to want to give back to others.
Reposted by Daniel Dylan Wray
there's almost nobody in This Thing Of Ours who doesn't owe something to Keith in one way or another, so let's all chip in a few quid when he needs it most... very glad to hear he's comfortable at last
Keith McIvor (JD Twitch) care support
Helping Keith McIvor (JD Twitch) access urgent care and therapies to manage and ease symptoms
crowdfunder.co.uk
July 14, 2025 at 9:26 PM
there's almost nobody in This Thing Of Ours who doesn't owe something to Keith in one way or another, so let's all chip in a few quid when he needs it most... very glad to hear he's comfortable at last
I love the documentary American Movie very deeply. I wrote the latest entry in the my feelgood movie series on it about how inspiring I find the purity and heart of it on top of the lols. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ju...
‘I’m rooting for them’: why American Movie is my feelgood movie
The next in our series of writers drawing attention to their favourite comfort films looks back to a funny and touching documentary from 1999
www.theguardian.com
July 7, 2025 at 12:54 PM
I love the documentary American Movie very deeply. I wrote the latest entry in the my feelgood movie series on it about how inspiring I find the purity and heart of it on top of the lols. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ju...
Reposted by Daniel Dylan Wray
It's here! The Quietus Albums of the Year So Far 2025.
What's at Number One? How many have you heard?
buff.ly/h3osP6p
@normanrecords.com
What's at Number One? How many have you heard?
buff.ly/h3osP6p
@normanrecords.com
July 7, 2025 at 7:47 AM
It's here! The Quietus Albums of the Year So Far 2025.
What's at Number One? How many have you heard?
buff.ly/h3osP6p
@normanrecords.com
What's at Number One? How many have you heard?
buff.ly/h3osP6p
@normanrecords.com
Hearts of Darkness - a doc on the making of Apocalypse Now - is back in cinemas this week. I spoke with its director, along with a couple of cast and crew from the original film, to dig into a troubled production that produced a landmark despite the chaos. www.bbc.co.uk/culture/arti...
'Vietnam was insane, Apocalypse Now only slightly less so': The inside story of the wildest shoot in film history
No production has been as troubled as Apocalypse Now. As a documentary about Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 war epic is re-released, its director, and people who were on set, reveal all.
www.bbc.co.uk
July 2, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Hearts of Darkness - a doc on the making of Apocalypse Now - is back in cinemas this week. I spoke with its director, along with a couple of cast and crew from the original film, to dig into a troubled production that produced a landmark despite the chaos. www.bbc.co.uk/culture/arti...
After 45 years, The Leadmill closes this week. It's been a bitter, messy, battle – personal and legal – until the end. It's sad for many people but I wanted to use it as an opportunity to celebrate Sheffield's bountiful ongoing independent spirit elsewhere. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...
‘Not all grassroots venues are struggling’: Sheffield’s Leadmill may be closing, but the city’s DIY hubs are thriving
Despite controversial new ownership for the local landmark, Sheffield’s vibrant network of staunchly independent spots is bucking the crisis facing Britain’s small music venues
www.theguardian.com
June 24, 2025 at 7:05 AM
After 45 years, The Leadmill closes this week. It's been a bitter, messy, battle – personal and legal – until the end. It's sad for many people but I wanted to use it as an opportunity to celebrate Sheffield's bountiful ongoing independent spirit elsewhere. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...
Reposted by Daniel Dylan Wray
"In Sheffield you let your music and your art do the talking. You leave your ego at the door. Everything else doesn’t matter. The song is king."
@danieldylanwray.bsky.social catches up with the legendary Richard Hawley to talk dreams, dogs, and why he’ll never set foot in The Leadmill ever again.
@danieldylanwray.bsky.social catches up with the legendary Richard Hawley to talk dreams, dogs, and why he’ll never set foot in The Leadmill ever again.
‘I'm just a specky bum from Sheffield who got lucky’
Coles Corner was Richard Hawley’s love letter to his city. 20 years on, he looks back on the record that made him a star
www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk
June 19, 2025 at 12:10 PM
"In Sheffield you let your music and your art do the talking. You leave your ego at the door. Everything else doesn’t matter. The song is king."
@danieldylanwray.bsky.social catches up with the legendary Richard Hawley to talk dreams, dogs, and why he’ll never set foot in The Leadmill ever again.
@danieldylanwray.bsky.social catches up with the legendary Richard Hawley to talk dreams, dogs, and why he’ll never set foot in The Leadmill ever again.
Reposted by Daniel Dylan Wray
"House music demands that we all have a space at the table.”
Ahead of its UK premiere at Sheffield DocFest, @danieldylanwray.bsky.social speaks to house pioneer Vince Lawrence and filmmaker Elegance Bratton about Move Ya Body: The Birth of House
djmag.com/features/new...
Ahead of its UK premiere at Sheffield DocFest, @danieldylanwray.bsky.social speaks to house pioneer Vince Lawrence and filmmaker Elegance Bratton about Move Ya Body: The Birth of House
djmag.com/features/new...
New documentary, Move Ya Body: The Birth of House, illuminates Chicago house music's Black and queer roots
Ahead of its UK premiere at Sheffield DocFest this week, Daniel Dylan Wray speaks to house pioneer Vince Lawrence and filmmaker Elegance Bratton about Move Ya Body: The Birth of House, a new documenta...
djmag.com
June 17, 2025 at 12:44 PM
"House music demands that we all have a space at the table.”
Ahead of its UK premiere at Sheffield DocFest, @danieldylanwray.bsky.social speaks to house pioneer Vince Lawrence and filmmaker Elegance Bratton about Move Ya Body: The Birth of House
djmag.com/features/new...
Ahead of its UK premiere at Sheffield DocFest, @danieldylanwray.bsky.social speaks to house pioneer Vince Lawrence and filmmaker Elegance Bratton about Move Ya Body: The Birth of House
djmag.com/features/new...
This is such a wonderful record. Drink it up.
HAPPY happy day. It's the official release date of my 2t2 album🙌. Available from the link below and other fine records stores via links on www.coseyfannitutti.com Love to you all 🎊❤️ x x x x
June 13, 2025 at 8:08 AM
This is such a wonderful record. Drink it up.
Did this week’s readers interview with John C Reilly, who was a total sweetheart and answered various Qs on everything from Tom Waits to Magnolia via his new musical project and his buttocks.
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...
‘Chaps frame the buttocks in a beautiful way’: John C Reilly on Magnolia, moving into music – and his nice bum
The actor and musician takes your questions on devastating box office results, his love of Oliver Hardy, and his new vaudeville crooner alter ego
www.theguardian.com
June 12, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Did this week’s readers interview with John C Reilly, who was a total sweetheart and answered various Qs on everything from Tom Waits to Magnolia via his new musical project and his buttocks.
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...
good gear.
new: a publishing supernova of hastily commissioned Oasis books is coming to the shelves of Dads and Uncles near you.
For @thequietus.com I read three of them. How do they confront what Oasis were for most of their career (I.e. appalling, making bad music)?
thequietus.com/opinion-and-...
For @thequietus.com I read three of them. How do they confront what Oasis were for most of their career (I.e. appalling, making bad music)?
thequietus.com/opinion-and-...
Some Might Not Say: What a glut of new Oasis books is leaving unwritten | The Quietus
There are a glut of new Oasis books out due to the reunion, but, asks Fergal Kinney, how is the band's shocking decline in quality dealt with?
thequietus.com
June 10, 2025 at 10:53 AM
good gear.
Reposted by Daniel Dylan Wray
My FT profile of the wonderful Peter De Rome, gay film pioneer (not using the other p-word as prudish Bluesky gets upset) is now up online. One of the gay and bisexual men whose lives were changed forever by their experiences of WWII & the state of the UK afterwards...
www.ft.com/content/f981...
www.ft.com/content/f981...
Art-house or porn? London’s Barbican showcases gay film pioneer Peter De Rome
The audacious director of erotica, who pushed boundaries of acceptability in the 1970s, is now part of the cinematic canon
www.ft.com
June 9, 2025 at 9:02 AM
My FT profile of the wonderful Peter De Rome, gay film pioneer (not using the other p-word as prudish Bluesky gets upset) is now up online. One of the gay and bisexual men whose lives were changed forever by their experiences of WWII & the state of the UK afterwards...
www.ft.com/content/f981...
www.ft.com/content/f981...
Reposted by Daniel Dylan Wray
‘You can't live in a museum. I'm a great believer in moving forward’
Pete Hill made his name shooting the rising stars of 80s Sheffield
He now documents the city’s rapidly disappearing past 📸
✍️ @danieldylanwray.bsky.social
Pete Hill made his name shooting the rising stars of 80s Sheffield
He now documents the city’s rapidly disappearing past 📸
✍️ @danieldylanwray.bsky.social
‘I couldn’t get to New York, so Heeley Bottom had to do’
Pete Hill looks back at 50 years of shooting Sheffield
www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk
June 7, 2025 at 12:48 PM
‘You can't live in a museum. I'm a great believer in moving forward’
Pete Hill made his name shooting the rising stars of 80s Sheffield
He now documents the city’s rapidly disappearing past 📸
✍️ @danieldylanwray.bsky.social
Pete Hill made his name shooting the rising stars of 80s Sheffield
He now documents the city’s rapidly disappearing past 📸
✍️ @danieldylanwray.bsky.social
The mighty Cabaret Voltaire are back to play a small run of 50th anniversary shows this year. I sat down with Chris Watson and Stephen Mallinder for their first return interview. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...
‘Yes, there was a riot, but it was great’: Cabaret Voltaire on violent gigs, nuclear noise – and returning to mark 50 years
They made music like sonic warfare, using steamhammers for drums and annoying anyone they could. As the band return, they relive the mayhem years – and their soundtrack spinoffs, from Attenborough to ...
www.theguardian.com
June 2, 2025 at 8:33 AM
The mighty Cabaret Voltaire are back to play a small run of 50th anniversary shows this year. I sat down with Chris Watson and Stephen Mallinder for their first return interview. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...
I was really surprised by just how effective and successful the Radiohead / Hamlet production was. Pretty remarkable stuff at times. I dug into the Radiohead/music side of things in a little more detail after last night's world premiere. pitchfork.com/thepitch/rad...
Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief Brilliantly Recontextualized by New Staging of Hamlet: Review
A modern British production of Shakespeare’s immortal tale of madness and revenge brings out the underlying themes of Radiohead's most “political” album with the blessing of Thom Yorke himself.
pitchfork.com
May 8, 2025 at 4:42 PM
I was really surprised by just how effective and successful the Radiohead / Hamlet production was. Pretty remarkable stuff at times. I dug into the Radiohead/music side of things in a little more detail after last night's world premiere. pitchfork.com/thepitch/rad...
And was also fun to get stuck into the story and history of bassline and how it's gone from a genre that police once outlawed to a celebratory and family-friendly part of Bradford City of Culture.
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/m...
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/m...
‘It’s a northern sound, it gives you hope that it can happen to you’: how bassline bounced back
Once maligned as a scene marred by violence, bassline is booming once again thanks to pioneers such as Big Ang, Jamie Duggan and a T2 track that changed everything
www.theguardian.com
May 6, 2025 at 8:04 AM
And was also fun to get stuck into the story and history of bassline and how it's gone from a genre that police once outlawed to a celebratory and family-friendly part of Bradford City of Culture.
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/m...
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/m...
Enjoyed catching up with Swamp Dogg, who is a wonderful character and has lived a hell of a life, much of which is explored in a new documentary doing the rounds at the mo.
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/m...
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/m...
Eccentric musician Swamp Dogg at 82: ‘There’s no sympathy for octogenarians’
The genre-bending cult singer is the subject of an offbeat new documentary where he invites people into a long life filled with ups, downs and LSD
www.theguardian.com
May 6, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Enjoyed catching up with Swamp Dogg, who is a wonderful character and has lived a hell of a life, much of which is explored in a new documentary doing the rounds at the mo.
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/m...
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/m...
Reposted by Daniel Dylan Wray
... and @danieldylanwray.bsky.social will be in conversation with two very special guests. I'll be spinning Cabs-related tunes in the intervals! Check the details here: performancevenues.group.shef.ac.uk/event/50-yea...
50 Years of Sonic Shock: Celebrating Cabaret Voltaire - Performance Venues
performancevenues.group.shef.ac.uk
May 5, 2025 at 9:29 PM
... and @danieldylanwray.bsky.social will be in conversation with two very special guests. I'll be spinning Cabs-related tunes in the intervals! Check the details here: performancevenues.group.shef.ac.uk/event/50-yea...