| Dave Rowntree | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | David Alexander De Horne Rowntree |
| Born | May 8, 1964 |
| Origin | Colchester, Essex, England |
| Genres | Alternative rock, art rock, Britpop |
| Occupations | Musician, animator, solicitor, political activist |
| Instruments | Drums, drum machine, percussion, guitar, vocals |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Associated acts | Blur, The Ailerons, Empire Square |
| Website | www.blur.co.uk |
David Alexander De Horne Rowntree (born 8 May 1964 in Colchester, Essex) is an English solicitor, musician, animator, and political activist. He is best known as the drummer of the alternative rock band Blur. He is also a member of The Ailerons.
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Rowntree was born to musical parents – Susan, a viola player, and John, a sound engineer at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). He attended the Gilberd School, Colchester during the week, and the Landermere Music School, Thorpe-le-Soken, at weekends, where he studied percussion. He played percussion with his father in the Colchester Silver Band, a brass band. After leaving school he studied for a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Computer Science at Thames Polytechnic,[1] and started his career as a computer programmer for Colchester Borough Council.
Rowntree had played in bands with Graham Coxon while the two were growing up in Colchester, and knew Coxon's father who taught jazz classes at Landermere. In 1989 Coxon introduced Rowntree to Damon Albarn, who was forming a band around Goldsmiths, University of London. Rowntree was asked to join, and left his job and moved to London. With the addition of Alex James, and after many name changes, the band settled on Blur and were quickly signed to EMI.
Rowntree is a computer animator, and owns an animation company called Nanomation. He directed two series of the South Park-esque animated show Empire Square, which made its TV debut on Channel 4 on 18 February 2005. He is also interested in computer graphics, and has contributed to three research papers on topics related to non-photorealistic rendering.[2][3][4]
Since 2006, Rowntree has been training to become a solicitor,[5] and is currently working at a firm of criminal law solicitors, based in East London. He is a committed opponent of the death penalty, and is a patron of Amicus,[6] an organisation that provides legal representation for those on Death Row in the US.
Rowntree has been a keen activist and supporter of the Labour Party since becoming a member in 2002, and is chair of London's West End branch. In April 2007 he unsuccessfully contested the safe Conservative seat of Marylebone High Street on Westminster City Council. In July 2008 he fought the safe Labour seat of Church Street, a Labour stronghold since its creation in the 1960s, however a swing from Labour to the Conservatives of 14.1% meant that he was again unsuccessful as the Conservatives gained the seat.
In February 2008 he was selected by the Cities of London and Westminster Constituency Labour Party to stand against Conservative MP Mark Field at the 2010 general election. He was defeated at that election.
Rowntree supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq and in 2007 said, "I’m not a pacifist, I do believe that some things are worth fighting for, and dying for. I understand that that’s easier to say, I’m not being the one who’s asked to die, but Saddam was such an illegal ruthless bastard I didn’t shed any tears for it [the war]."[7]
He has continued to take an interest in computer science, and in the early days of the Linux operating system wrote a device driver to enable a particular CD-ROM card to work with the operating system.
He has also campaigned against prosecution of internet music filesharers, and is a member of the Advisory Council of the Open Rights Group, a United Kingdom-based digital rights NGO. When asked on Blur's website about how he felt about single "Out of Time" being leaked on the Internet before its release he replied "I'd rather it gushed".
Rowntree has a serious interest in flying, having obtained a full pilot's licence in 1995, as well as in space travel, shown by his involvement with fellow bandmate Alex James in the Beagle 2 Mission to Mars project.
Rowntree is a founding director of the Featured Artists Coalition.[8]
Dave has used a very large assortment of different drum kits with Blur. Dave primarily used a Yamaha kit for all albums up until Blur but occasionally using other brands for live performances. Starting with the Blur era up until the Think Tank era, he primarily used a Pearl kit. Starting with Think Tank, he began using a Slingerland kit which he uses up to this day. Dave has always used Pro-Mark Medium drumsticks and has always used Zildjian cymbals. There is also a Roger's Dave kit used in the video of Blur's "Coffee & TV".
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