Blur’s Drummer Dave Rowntree Releases Photobook ‘No One You Know’
Dave Rowntree, drummer of iconic British band Blur, has just announced the launch of his photography book ‘No One You Know’ filled with exclusive, intimate, never-before-seen photographs of Blur at the start of the band’s career.
Published by independent publishers Hero, No One You Know will be available in an exclusive artist edition with three postcard photo prints, available only from the artist's store. Taken by the man himself on an old Olympus OM-10, the photobook serves as a glimpse into what it’s like to be in a band at the precipice of fame. When touring in a bus is still a novelty, friendships feel unbreakable and the songs are still bouncing around in bedrooms not on stages. We spoke with Rowntree over a virtual biscuit and cup of tea about his latest venture that Blur fans will be thankful is all about Blur.
My first question, is an Olympic OM-10 a trusty camera?
It was a very fashionable camera. I think it’s from the 1980’s? It's quite an old model. I bought it in a second-hand shop. It was small, during a time when having things small was fashionable. There’s all these lifestyle adverts of the camera with people smiling and holding it (laughs). I don’t think it was a particularly good camera, but like I said I picked it up in a second hand shop and just started taking pictures. It was ahead of its time with the light meter in the viewfinder. That was a big deal and it made it a lot easier to get the exposure right.
Did someone ever teach you how to take photos or did you just pick it up as you went along?
I've always taken photos ever since I was a kid. I had my first camera when I was about seven or eight years old. Of course, they're all film cameras in those days but yeah it is something that I have always done.
Why come out with this book now?
Well, I'd lost all the pictures but then they turned up and I was very relieved that I still had them. I didn't really start looking through them until lockdown when Tim Burgess was doing Tim's Twitter listening parties. That was quite a big thing during lockdown, at least in my life, and so I was looking for things I did. I did two or three of those for different Blur albums. I was just looking for stuff to post, really. I've got boxes and boxes of old memorabilia and then all these pictures. So that's when I started looking through them. I just thought when all this is over, I really should put these together into a book. So that’s what I did.
So it’s taken a few years if you said lockdown?
Yeah it's a project I've had on the back burner. Taking the time to look for the right publisher and format and paper. I was never bothered about when it would come out, it doesn’t matter. When it’s ready, it’s ready and now it’s ready.
Putting this together I imagine would have been quite nostalgic, how has it been looking back on it all?
It's been really interesting because some of it I remember like it was yesterday and some of it I have no idea where we were, what we were doing and who the people in the photo are. So it's quite a variety of feelings really. And actually, it's given me an excuse to get in touch with all of my old friends from the early days and send them the photos for their comments. So that's been quite good fun as well.
Were there any photos that sparked a particularly emotional experience at all?
Yeah, the really early ones. I've got some of us in the studio working on the first album and I just remember how exciting that was, how it just felt like everything you know. We hadn't done anything like that before, hadn't worked with the producer, hadn't been in a proper recording studio. All these things that were first, when everything was disorientating, exciting and kind of crazy. Sort of like when you are wearing new clothes, it just doesn't quite fit and it's like, what the hell's going on? I remember that really well.
From that time, what were the novel things that quickly became old?
In the early days, you think, wow, this is just going to be so great to be travelling all the time. But then you realise oh my god, travelling all the time means I'm just going to be exhausted all the time. When you're on tour, you're basically exhausted the entire time. And it's still true. It doesn't get any easier.
Yeah what was the longest tour that you did together as a band?
Well, we were on tour for twenty years, really, with some time off to record new albums. We were just constantly on tour. All we did was play live. So yeah, twenty years was the longest tour.
What is something that you miss from those early days?
It was a very different music industry then. Back then music was still a hobby in a different way to what it is now. If you ask people now what they do in their spare time and they say listen to music, you’d be like ‘no what do you do?’ But in the early days of the band, listening to music was the hobby. You go out and buy records and go over to each other’s houses and play the records that you just bought and read the record sleeves. You’d buy all the music magazines and read all the gossip about the bands and what they were getting involved in. All of that was the hobby, right? Music wasn’t just something you put on in the background while you were doing something else. That’s kind of what it has turned into now. But I think that the pendulum is swinging back again. But yeah back then, just being way more involved in the music you know. Then suddenly we weren’t just looking at it from the outside, we were on the inside. That was really exciting, you know? Being the people that journalists write about and having the piss taken out of us, being the butt of the joke. It was very exciting.
I really do hope the pendulum does swing back in terms of people appreciating music more intentionally these days. I can’t speak for anyone else but that comment has just made me realise that this year was the first year I bought a record of an artist whose record actually came out this year instead of just buying records that have, you know, proved their worth within my collection (laughs). So maybe you’re onto something. On that point you make about being on the inside, did you have any idea of how long that would last?
No, not at all. When we first started out the kind of music we were making was deeply unfashionable right? We weren’t in the charts. In fact indie bands like us had to make their own charts because we sold so few records that we wouldn't make it. We'd be lucky if you got in the top 100 you know and that didn't change for years. That didn't change until Parklife, winning those BRIT Awards and the spat with Oasis. That's when it changed. In the early days, it seemed that the idea that a band like us would make enough, or make any money was all laughable. There was that kind of thing that was being written about in the music papers, these kind of uppity bands that think they're going to be successful, they're never going to be successful, you know? Yeah, so no, it's bizarre. In the early days, I thought it'd be great if we could just release a single. How amazing it would be to tell my grandchildren I did that. Then it was a bunch of singles, then an album and it just grew and grew and grew.
Wait I forgot to ask, what were some of the records you bought?
Well that would have been the tail end of the Manchester scene in the UK and of Nirvana and all the bands that followed them. There was a bit of a lull after that to be honest, everyone looking around for the next thing. But for me it would have been The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Nirvana obviously. I’ve always had a long standing interest in other music such as jazz and I’m a huge fan of King Crimson who I have never stopped listening to.
Are there any newer bands that have caught your attention?
I'm listening to a lot of electronic music at the moment. I just went to see John Hopkins play at Crystal Palace in North London. He was a part of this big immersive music festival where the gig happened simultaneously with 200 speakers all the way around, so you can move around and get a different experience. I’m really interested in that - the whole making a gig more immersive and interesting for the audience. No one wants to just stand at the front of the stage with their mouths open. That just feels a bit old fashioned (laughs). I think people want more of an experience, not just a passive receiver of entertainment. I know I do. How do you push the boundaries a bit? That’s where I’m thinking and am most drawn too.
I know that you also have an incredible career and hobbies outside of Blur, are there any photos that foreshadow that? Any space stuff or political rallies for example?
No this book is just all Blur. I wasn’t even thinking about those kinds of things at this stage. And also it’s me who’s taking the photos so I’m not even in most of it.
Are Blur members all still friends at this point?
We all support each other in our various non Blur related things. We still go to each other's shows. But we all live in different parts of the country so it’s not like we pop around for cups of tea as much these days. We used to go all the time but now it’s quite a trek. I mean it’s probably not a trek at all in your Australian eyes but for us Brits, we consider it a long-distance relationship.
