The China Mail - Blur will return to musical oasis, says drummer Rowntree

"I think Blur will definitely do something else," he told AFP, as their great rivals Oasis prepare for the first of their own reunion gigs in Cardiff on Friday.

Rowntree, a founding member of Blur, has put together photos of the band at the start of their career in the 1980s around a decade before Britpop exploded.

"No One You Know: Dave Rowntree's Early Blur Photos" is due out in September.

But the book nearly did not see the light of day as he only found the negatives by chance, in an old cardboard box that had been earmarked for the dump.

"In my memory, the photos would just seem like holiday snaps," Rowntree, now 61, said in an interview in Paris.

"What the pictures show and capture really well, I think, is our excitement at doing all these things for the first time."

- 'Unfashionable music' -

Rowntree's candid, sometimes blurry, shots are of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon and bassist Alex James, with lighting director Dave Byars.

"We were playing tiny shows to very few people. We were playing very unfashionable music in those days," he recalled.

But with a recording contract, the happy-go-lucky band -- cigarettes and alcohol ever present -- discovered the world on their first international tour.

"An awful lot of travelling, an awful lot of sitting in dressing rooms, where you're just desperate for something to do," Rowntree remembered with a smile.

"So, there's a lot of that, a lot of us goofing around to distract each other."

When Britpop burst onto the music scene in the early 1990s, Blur were at the vanguard, and songs such as "Girls & Boys", "Parklife" and "Song 2" defined a generation.

It was not plain sailing, though, with turbulence, break-ups and reunions, the last of which came in 2023 for the album "The Ballad of Darren" and two sold-out gigs at London's Wembley Stadium.

In the two years since then, Rowntree -- a trained lawyer who stood unsuccessfully in the 2024 general election for the Labour party -- the band's future has been up in the air.

Albarn, whose new album with Gorillaz is due out this year and is also reworking Mozart's "The Magic Flute", has frequently said that Blur's days are over.

Rowntree, however, is not so convinced it's the end of the band.

"It seems to me it's not over," he said. "I think I'll know when it's over but there's no plans as such. Blur doesn't really work that way.

"We don't have planning meetings and strategy. It's kind of we make it up as we go along."

- 'Two-edged sword' -

With Oasis back on the scene this week and Pulp surprising fans with a Glastonbury festival appearance last weekend, Rowntree sees it less as a Britpop revival than a worrying shift in the music industry.

"It gets harder and harder to make money selling recorded music," he said. "Musicians have to look for other ways to earn a living.

"Many bands are being pushed back out on the road again.

"I think that's great because I think that's where music lives. It's in the concert hall in front of an audience. But the downside is that only really works for bands at our level -- the Pulps, the Blurs, the Oasis.

"For smaller bands, they're finding it increasingly difficult."

The long-awaited return of warring Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher has seen complaints about high ticket prices and the dynamic pricing method used to maximise revenue.

Yet, despite the well-documented rivalry with Oasis, Rowntree gave a guarded welcome to the Manchester rockers' return.

"It's a two-edged sword, isn't it? On the one hand, I'm really glad that they're out on tour. Think of all the economic benefits.

"It's going to be fantastic. On the other hand, it's a shame that good tickets are now so expensive."

Rowntree confided that he even bought a ticket himself but is now unable to go.

"I had to give it to a friend of mine," he said.

K.Lam--ThChM