Check out candid photos from the book as the drummer looks back at that „thrilling time“ of „just four men in their 20s being really excited by everything that’s going on“
Dave Rowntree has announced a new photo book documenting the rise of Blur. Check out images from and details of No One You Know: Dave Rowntree’s Early Blur Photos along with our interview with the drummer.
The 200+ page book from the sticksman, solo star, politician and artist will be published via independent publishers Hero (part of the Legend Times Group) on September 2025 9, and comes edited by journalist, author and broadcaster Miranda Sawyer.
No One You Know: Dave Rowntree’s Early Blur Photos reveals the drummer’s view of the band’s formative years and rise through the lends of his Olympus OM-10, portraying the Britpop legends of Rowntree alongside Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Alex James in all of the “excitement of a young band in their infancy, becoming a global concern” – showing a candid portrait of them behind the scenes and in their down time.
“I took over 1,000 pictures over the course of a few years,” Rowntree told NME. “If the band were working, I was working. All of the other pictures that are out there are of the band doing photo shoots, magazine shoots, being on stage. I just have the other stuff: us hanging out, travelling, before shows, after shows, and just four men in their 20s being really excited by everything that’s going on.
“It was a thrilling time for the band. We were doing stuff that we’d come to take for granted, I’m ashamed to say, but we were doing it all for the first time.”
Check out our full interview with Rowntree below, where he told us about his memories – and lack of – of the band’s innocent early years, the hard times that made him put the camera down, and why we hopefully haven’t seen the end of Blur just yet.
NME: Hello Dave. Why did you opt for a photo book rather than a memoir like we’ve seen from Graham and Alex?
Dave Rowntree: “I will do one of those eventually, but I’ll probably write that when I don’t want to be in Blur anymore. The Blur memoir market is a rather crowded one at the moment. I’d have to call it, What About Me?”
How did you land on the idea for this one?
“It’s a story that very nearly wasn’t told. I took all these pictures during the first four or five years of the band. I had a camera with me all the time, and I remember Damon saying, ‘What are you going to do with all these photos?’ I had absolutely no idea. I put them in a metal box, moved house, then moved house again and again. When I went to look for the metal box, it was gone!
“It wasn’t until the first lockdown when we all had nothing to do apart from tidy our houses. I had these boxes in my basement that I’d never opened. I thought they had old audio cassettes in that I’d never want. Lo and behold, I opened them and there was the metal box.
“Tim Burgess and I are old friends so I did a couple of #TimsTwitterListeningParties for him and started to look through the pictures so I’d have something to Tweet about the early albums. They were really evocative about the time. There was just something about them and they all hang together quite well. Tim asked if he could use some of the photos for a Listening Party book and I said I should do one myself. That was the start of that.”
What do we learn about Blur through this candid lens?
“The reality is that we were having an awful lot of fun. We tried to pretend that we weren’t and that it was all very serious – that was all part of our manifesto – but actually we were thrilled and gobsmacked by all of the things we were able to do. Everyone’s having so much fun and smiling in these pictures, not pouting and snarling like we were doing in the photoshoots.”
How well do these photos match up with your memories? Did anything take you by surprise?
“Yes, the amount of stuff I didn’t remember! I imagined that seeing these pictures would unlock the treasure trove of memories, and there’s tons of stuff that I just don’t remember at all: things I don’t remember doing, places I don’t remember going, I don’t know who some of the people are.
“It is what it is, but it’s funny the things I really do remember. Japan is the main one. I remember every moment of our first few trips to Japan. The country really floored me. I was gobsmacked and I’d never been anywhere that was so different and yet so welcoming and friendly. It was just a wonderful, magical place and still is. I also remember our first trip to Canada. We flew into Canada, picked up a bus and drove down to the Niagara Falls crossing and then through America. I’d never been to the States before, and it was wonderful: like stepping into a movie.”
What are some of the moments you don’t remember?
“When I have to zoom into the writing on the walls or the cars to try to even figure out what country it is! I’d be very interested to hear if any Blur fans can figure out where they were taken.”
What photos in the book are you the most fond of?
“On one of the early US tours we had a day off in Pennsylvania and we all went to this rollercoaster park. It was a proper American retro one where all of the rollercoasters were made of wood, or looked like they were. We had a really magical day there, and one of the things I remember most was that when we were going towards the park, there was this massive black storm cloud sitting over it. That was a bad omen if ever you’ve seen one. We were all slightly nervous, but we all got on the first rollercoaster and it was so exhilarating and everything you’d imagine – like being in an old American movie.”
Anything in there that ties in with the Blur lore – the Oasis chart battle for instance?
“By the time of the Blur vs Oasis thing, I’d stopped taking photos.”
Why is that?
“After a few years, I was using my camera less and less. What I told myself was that because I was constantly looking through the viewfinder, I wasn’t actually engaging or in the world. It was like watching the world on TV. Watching my life through the viewfinder was somehow different and inferior to just using my eyes.
“I was also starting to struggle a bit with mental health. I got a bit distracted. I regret putting the camera down now. Having seen now how much of a treasure trove it is, I’ve realised that having photos of what I don’t remember is as valuable as what I do remember. That period of our lives where I put the camera down is just completely undocumented. For the other 30 years, there aren’t photos of us all doing that stuff.”
We spoke to Graham last year who told us Blur “can’t leave it too long” to reunite again because you’re all “knocking on”. Would you agree on that?
“I’ve just turned 61. When I was 21, the idea of 61-year-olds making albums, touring and being in the charts would have been laughable. I wonder if that’s how 21-year-olds feel about me now? There’s going to come a time when we’re too old to do it, but we’ll have probably decided to throw the towel in before then anyway. Nobody wants to go on past our sell-by-date.”
But there’s still a hunger as long as there’s a reason?
“Yes, it takes an interesting idea now to tempt us back into the studio. The last one was Wembley Stadium [in 2023]. You can’t say no to that. It was the party at the end of the Olympics in 2012 that got us out before, the Hyde Park shows in 2009 before that. As long as people are coming up with interesting ideas for us to do it again, then I’m sure we’ll go for it.
“There will come a time when we’ll go, ‘Is there anything left to say? Is there another good Blur album to make?’ I think that’ll be quite a way before we’re in our dotage and unable to remember the songs when we’re wheeled on in our bath chairs. But then, look at The Stones – they’re still touring aren’t they?”
Do Blur age like a fine wine?
“Bizarrely, we’re all much better musicians now than we were 20 years ago. We’re not playing together full-time but we’re all still making music constantly. All of that feeds back into the Blur thing, so when we made the last album [‘The Ballad Of Darren’, 2023], it was easier not harder because we’d all evolved so much.
“All these outside projects spark ideas so we all turned up to Blur on day one buzzing with ideas and enthusiasm. You don’t get that if you’re working full-time on the project. If we’d all only been doing Blur for the past 35-40 years, then we wouldn’t get the benefit of those experiences. It’s important to the evolution of the band that we don’t go at it full-time.”
Did that enthusiasm lead to conversations about what you might do next?
“No, there’s never anything in the diary and that’s both the beautiful and appallingly frustrating thing about Blur. When there’s nothing going on, there aren’t conversations about it. Everything happens in a panic at the last minute which means we’re all having to cancel two or three years’ worth of plans. Our own diaries are full this year and next year.”
The last time we spoke was as you were launching your debut solo album ‘Radio Songs‘. Do you have any more of your own music or soundtrack projects in the works?
“I’m working on two TV series soundtracks and I’ve got another musical project in the offing which is a collaboration. I can’t give you any clues at all about what they are, sadly. With the TV shows, you’re under NDAs so they announce it and you don’t, and I’m so excited about the music project that I think that warrants its own announcement.”
Mike Joyce from The Smiths recently joined Pete Doherty’s live band. Do you get many invitations like that?
“Never! Well, it’s happened once in my career! The guitarist from The Rentals [Matt Sharp] who toured with us years ago was once making a solo album and asked me if I’d drum on it. Actually, I drummed on the first Gorillaz album as well.”
Would you like to take this opportunity in NME to advertise a ‘drummer for hire’?
“I’m a bit busy at the moment, unfortunately. It would be nice to be asked, even though I’m probably going to say no.”
No One You Know: Dave Rowntree’s Early Blur Photos will be published September 9, 2025. The book is available to pre-order now here (artist’s edition includes exclusive postcard photo prints). Rowntree will also be signing copies of the book at Rough Trade Denmark Street on September 10 (see here for Rough Trade pre-order and event details)
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