from the artist. In Smash Hits, Tom Hibbert deemed the album dull and full of "contrived studio jams", giving sole praise to "Bang Bang". Glenn O'Brien of Spin magazine called the album "an inspired and brilliantly crafted work. It's charged with a positive spirit that makes art soul food; imbued with the contagious energy that gives ideas a leg to dance on", but two years later a different reviewer from the same magazine called it "disappointing". Rolling Stone Steve Pond called the work an "odd, freewheeling pastiche of elements from all the previous Bowies", "unfocused", and possibly "the noisiest, sloppiest Bowie album ever.... Being noisy and sloppy isn't necessarily a bad thing, but sad to say, Never Let Me Down is also something of a mess." In his review for The New York Times, Jon Pareles also recognised elements of Bowie's previous works in Never Let Me Down and felt it was Bowie's "most serious statement" since Scary Monsters. In Creem, Roy Tarkin felt that the album represented a creative low point for Bowie due to poor execution. Tarkin ended his review stating "I guess you could say Never Let Me Down did just that; let me down." Tour To support the album, Bowie embarked on the Glass Spider Tour, which began on 30 May 1987 and ended on 28 November the same year. Earlier in the year Bowie said: "I'm going to do a stage thing this year, which I'm incredibly excited about, 'cause I'm gonna take a chance again", but when pressed for details, he refused to give up any, saying "I'll just be doing what I always did, which is keeping things interesting." Bowie performed several of the album's songs during a press tour that preceded his highly theatrical Glass Spider Tour, which played to a combined audience of as many as six million fans. Bowie wanted to produce a live show that picked up where his aborted 1974 Diamond Dogs Tour left off. Although considered financially successful and well attended, the tour itself was critically dismissed. Bowie designed his next few tours specifically to avoid the problems that the Glass Spider Tour was criticised for by avoiding overly theatrical stage presentations and focusing on his music. However, no song from Never Let Me Down was performed on any of Bowie's tours after 1987. Subsequent events At the conclusion of the Glass Spider Tour, Bowie began to