Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
01:07 - Long-lost photos
02:33 - First musical memory: The Teardrop Explodes
04:40 - Busking across Europe
06:58 - Meeting Damon
09:40 - Alex joins the band
11:56 - Blur's first review
14:30 - The Olympus camera
16:49 - Miranda Sawyer's contribution
22:12 - Japan
24:49 - Touring America
26:57 - Nostalgia
28:33 - The spoken word tour
31:33 - Tourbus mythology
34:57 - Other projects
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Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock & Roll going: patreon.com/wordinyourear
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Dave Rowntree had a camera with him as Blur took off in the early ‘90s and his book ‘No-One You Know’ distils the thrill of a band in ascent – backstage, in studios, with fans, on tour buses and their first trips to America and Japan. It bristles with joy and exhilaration. He looks back here at life in lift-off nearly 35 years ago and ahead to his spoken word tour promoting it, stopping off at …
… two years busking in France in the mid-’80s
… why pictures taken on film are more like paintings than photographs
… Blur’s unique chemistry - “all four of us had one sister and no brothers”
… what he learnt from their label manager Dave Balfe
… the writer who discovered Blur and other game-changing moments
… how ‘the Fanerati radar’ and editor Miranda Sawyer encouraged him to publish the book
… Japan’s confusing, intoxicating new culture in the early ‘90s
… mile-melting on US tour buses in the days before social media and DVD
… and why Blur today are in “the dream position”.
Order tickets and copies of the book here: daverowntree.com
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
01:07 - Long-lost photos
02:33 - First musical memory: The Teardrop Explodes
04:40 - Busking across Europe
06:58 - Meeting Damon
09:40 - Alex joins the band
11:56 - Blur's first review
14:30 - The Olympus camera
16:49 - Miranda Sawyer's contribution
22:12 - Japan
24:49 - Touring America
26:57 - Nostalgia
28:33 - The spoken word tour
31:33 - Tourbus mythology
34:57 - Other projects
----
Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock & Roll going: patreon.com/wordinyourear
----
Dave Rowntree had a camera with him as Blur took off in the early ‘90s and his book ‘No-One You Know’ distils the thrill of a band in ascent – backstage, in studios, with fans, on tour buses and their first trips to America and Japan. It bristles with joy and exhilaration. He looks back here at life in lift-off nearly 35 years ago and ahead to his spoken word tour promoting it, stopping off at …
… two years busking in France in the mid-’80s
… why pictures taken on film are more like paintings than photographs
… Blur’s unique chemistry - “all four of us had one sister and no brothers”
… what he learnt from their label manager Dave Balfe
… the writer who discovered Blur and other game-changing moments
… how ‘the Fanerati radar’ and editor Miranda Sawyer encouraged him to publish the book
… Japan’s confusing, intoxicating new culture in the early ‘90s
… mile-melting on US tour buses in the days before social media and DVD
… and why Blur today are in “the dream position”.
Order tickets and copies of the book here: daverowntree.com
