Word In Your Ear
Word In Your Ear
Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold
Blur’s thrilling early years in words and pictures by Dave Rowntree
36 minutes Posted Aug 27, 2026 at 10:42 am.
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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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