Blur don’t want to still be a band beyond their “sell-by-date”, says drummer Dave Rowntree.
The Britpop legends reunited in 2023 for the new album ‘The Ballad of Darren’ – their first in eight years – and a series of shows, including two sold-out nights at Wembley Stadium in the July, for what marked their first UK headline gigs since 2015.
And while discussing the future, Dave said he believes they are “quite a way before we’re in our dotage”, but they would never want to still be onstage when they are unable to remember their lyrics and “wheeled on in our bath chairs”.
He told NME: “I’ve just turned 61. When I was 21, the idea of 61-year-olds making albums, touring and being in the charts would have been laughable. I wonder if that’s how 21-year-olds feel about me now? There’s going to come a time when we’re too old to do it, but we’ll have probably decided to throw the towel in before then anyway. Nobody wants to go on past our sell-by-date.”
The ‘Parklife’ hitmakers are only drawn back to the band when there is a “an interesting idea” for new music and would never get back together just for the sake of it.
Asked if there is still a desire to keep going, he explained: “Yes, it takes an interesting idea now to tempt us back into the studio. The last one was Wembley Stadium [in 2023]. You can’t say no to that. It was the party at the end of the Olympics in 2012 that got us out before, the Hyde Park shows in 2009 before that. As long as people are coming up with interesting ideas for us to do it again, then I’m sure we’ll go for it.
“There will come a time when we’ll go, ‘Is there anything left to say? Is there another good Blur album to make?’ I think that’ll be quite a way before we’re in our dotage and unable to remember the songs when we’re wheeled on in our bath chairs. But then, look at The Stones – they’re still touring aren’t they?”
Bassist Alex James recently suggested their future could look like an ABBA-style avatar show – or “respectfully” dipping in and out of playing together.
Speaking to Ken Bruce on Greatest Hits Radio, he said: “We got back together in 2023, made a new record and I think did our best ever run of shows. It’s incredible how the music has endured and it was the first time we’d ever got to the end of an album or tour without at least one of us saying ‘that’s it, never again.’ We didn’t do many shows and I think that was probably a good place to leave it.
There’s two ways to go either the ABBA thing and stop at the top and just let it take its own course and make avatars of yourself when you were 27 and beautiful. Or treat it respectfully and dip in and out occasionally and it’s a really wonderful thing to be able to step back into – that all those years of playing together is a gift actually. As long as you don’t overcook it or annoy the guitar player or singer too much…”
Dave was speaking to promote his new photobook, ‘No One You Know: Dave Rowntree’s Early Blur Photos’, set to be published on September 9.