Dave Rowntree: It is important Blur is not full time to preserve our sanity

Blur’s Dave Rowntree has said it is important the band is “no longer a full-time thing” to “preserve our friendship and our sanity”.

The Britpop band returned with their ninth studio album, The Ballad Of Darren, in 2023 and played two gigs at Wembley Stadium, which have been documented in the film Blur: To The End.

Speaking about the band’s future at the film’s premiere in London, drummer Rowntree told the PA news agency: “There’s nothing in the diary. That’s all I can tell you.

“There’s never anything in the diary though and then suddenly the diary is completely full.

“We all enjoyed being on tour. We all enjoyed making the record.

“But it’s important to preserve our friendship and our sanity that Blur is no longer a full-time thing – that we do a bit of it and then we go back to our lives.

“Because we’ve all got too many things going on in our lives that you have to put on hold when we wheel Blur out again.

“If it was down to me I would definitely do something else, there are four of us in the band though, so we’ll have to see.

“It doesn’t feel like an ending. I know Damon (Albarn) constantly teases everyone saying ‘That’s it’… But who knows, that may be the end, that may not.

“There’s nothing in the diary, but it doesn’t feel like an ending to me.”

It comes after frontman Albarn, 56, told the crowd at Coachella “you’ll never see us again” during their set in April, which was met with near silence during a singalong.

Musician and politician Rowntree, who failed to be selected after standing as the Labour candidate for Mid Sussex at the General Election, also reflected on what it was like to be followed by cameras.

The 60-year-old and said they missed the “drama” of him hurting his knee, which led to the band cancelling their slot at France’s Festival Beauregard 2023.

“The cameras weren’t even there when the actual drama happened when I wrenched my knee, and it was unclear whether or not I was gonna be able to play Wembley,” he told PA.

“I was playing tennis, however, I turned around, reached down to pick up a ball and my ligaments in my knee collapsed, tore one of the ligaments in my knee.

“So it was unclear whether or not I was going to be able to walk or play the drums or anything.

“It turned out I wasn’t able to straighten my leg, but I was able to bend it so I could play the drums, albeit that it hurt, and I hobbled around on crutches for a bit.”

Blur – made up of lead singer Albarn, drummer Rowntree, guitarist Graham Coxon and bass player Alex James – have scored seven number one albums in the UK charts and have had two chart-topping singles with Beetlebum and Country House.

Documentary film Blur: To The End will be released to cinemas in the UK and Ireland on July 19.