No One You Know: Dave Rowntree’s Early Blur Photos

Blur drummer shares stories and photos from his bestselling book about the band’s formative years.

In collaboration with Edge Street Live, we are excited to invite Dave Rowntree to The Foxlowe for a one man show that delivers a unique insight into how one of Britain’s biggest bands started out.

Through unheard stories alongside candid photos from his new bestselling book ‘No One You Know’, Dave Rowntree shares the tales behind Blur’s formative years.  From their early friendships in Colchester, to world tours, and famously going head-to-head with Oasis, he offers rare insight into the moments that shaped one of the major defining bands of 1990s Britpop, Blur.

Dave Rowntree: “The pictures I took are of a band right at the start of their career. They’re of what we did between the gigs, interviews and photo sessions. They are of us hanging out, relaxing, travelling, eating, and especially in the early days, drinking.

They are snapshots of what life in Blur was really like in the first few years when the TV cameras and tape recorders were turned off. Obviously there isn’t much of the band actually working, because then I would have been working too. This is everything else.”

BIO

Dave Rowntree was a member of Blur before they were Blur, joining up as drummer with singer Damon Albarn and guitarist Graham Coxon when they were in various bands in Colchester in the late 1980s. After Alex James stepped in as bassist, Blur went on to become one of the most innovative and successful UK bands of all time: both creating Britpop and then moving up and on from it in a way that no other band has achieved.

The band’s exceptional creative musical talent, their unique ability to create art-rock anthems as well as solid pop bangers, has won them devoted fans across the world, and in 2023, after a hiatus, they sold out Wembley Stadium twice over. Blur have released nine studio albums, won five BRIT Awards, and sold 70 million across the world.

Aside from his career with Blur, Dave has also been hugely successful in other fields. His computer animation company Nanomation created influential work for MTV and Channel 4. In the mid-2000s, he trained to be a solicitor and worked for Kingsley Napley. He has been a Labour candidate and county councillor and is active in the Labour Party. His life-long interest in space led to him being heavily involved in the Beagle 2 Mars mission. He writes soundtracks for film and TV, including music for the BBC’s The Capture and Netflix’s The One, and he released his solo album Radio Songs on Cooking Vinyl in 2023.

This will be a seated show – Tickets are available online – £18.50 + booking fee

Saturday 13th June, 2026

Door time: 7:30pm, start time: 8:00pm

All ages (under-16s must be accompanied by an adult)

Ticket price: £18.50, Booking fee: £1.90