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

EPISODE · Aug 27, 2026 · 36 MIN

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

from Word In Your Ear

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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Aug 27, 2026

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

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