82 - Blur with Dave Rowntree (Colchester)

Join us & take a trip to Essex as we focus in on the early years of Blur with drummer Dave Rowntree. His new photograph book is called No One You Know: Early Blur Photos.

We begin in Colchester where a young Dave meets future Blur guitarist Graham Coxon on the local music scene. Graham later invites Dave to a mate's gig at local venue the Colchester Arts Centre, that mate turns out to be Damon Albarn.

The trio begin to play together in Colchester & London after Graham moves from saxophone to lead guitar. A vacancy on bass opens up & is filled by Graham's neighbour in his Goldsmiths College hall of residence, Alex James.

The first Blur (then known as Seymour) gig takes place at the East Anglian Railway Museum in the summer of 1989 & after a positive write up in the pages of Music Week, the band are signed within 6 months of forming. Blur end up on Food Records & following a name change become known for their chaotic & energetic gigs.

The label are keen for the band to pursue a 'baggy' sound with the Manchester scene still prominent in 1990 & debut single She's So High is released in October of 1990.

Things really take off once producer Stephen Street comes into the fold. Follow up single There's No Other Way breaks the top 10, peaking at number 8.

Debut album Leisure follows in the summer of 1991 & features a 1954 Charles Hewitt photograph on the cover.

Dave begins to document this early period by taking photographs, eventually taking hundreds which were edited down for the book. They cover the bands first trips to the US, Japan & Mexico & document a time when the world did not yet know Blur.

You can buy Dave's book here.

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