Blur’s thrilling early years in words and pictures by Dave Rowntree

Blur’s thrilling early years in words and pictures by Dave Rowntree

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold August 27, 2026 Duration: 36:31

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: https://www.daverowntree.com/

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear


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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

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