Dave Rowntree, 62, is a musician best known as the drummer in Blur, which formed in 1988 with Damon Albarn, Alex James and Graham Coxon, and became one of the defining British bands of the 90s. Away from the band, he has worked as a criminal solicitor and qualified as a pilot. He has been with his partner, Michelle, for 22 years. His photography book No One You Know: Dave Rowntree’s Early Blur Photos was published last year, and he brings a spoken-word show based on it to the Edinburgh Fringe this month.
Here, he looks back at the moments that shaped him, from surviving an alcoholic and drug-addicted household to representing suspects in Essex police stations, and discovering the knickers stop arriving once a band leaves its twenties.
I grew up in a turbulent, dangerous household. I never knew what would happen next. One family member was an alcoholic, another a drug addict and dealer. The front door might be kicked in by rival dealers. It was chaos, and I got out of the house as often as possible. I don’t want to make my whole life about it, but it explains a lot about what came next.
Music, photography and astronomy saved my life. Music gave me focus, peace and somewhere else to be. Photography got me outside my own head by making me concentrate on the world beyond myself. Astronomy did something similar. When you realise we are specks of dust in an unremarkable corner of an average galaxy, your problems become easier to place. Alex and I nerded out about astronomy from the beginning of Blur. I am now halfway through an Open University astronomy degree. I have always needed to learn: I became a pilot, studied law, built radios and now photograph the night sky. Standing still has never suited me.
