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David Alexander De Horne Rowntree (born 8 May 1964) is an English musician, politician, composer and animator. He is best known as the drummer for the rock band Blur.
In his political career, Rowntree served on the Norfolk County Council from 2017 to 2021 representing the Labour Party, and unsuccessfully stood for Parliament as a Labour candidate in the 2010 and 2024 general elections.
Rowntree and fellow band member Alex James became involved after taking a behind the scenes tour at Houston's NASA space centre. They were struck by how many of the people they met there were British and wondered why they had to go to America to do space research and work in the industry. When they got back to the UK, they came across Beagle 2 while looking for UK space projects and pledged to support it. At that time, the cost of the lander project was estimated at £25 million and did not have wide support.
Rowntree and James joined the Beagle 2 team in 1998 to help with PR. They used their platform to help promote the project. Their support attracted high-profile support from the artist Damien Hirst and industry and financial backers. And after years of lobbying, the UK Government and ESA agreed to help finance the project. The Mars Express mission, carrying Beagle 2, was launched in June 2003. It carried a signature tune written by Blur to be beamed back from Mars to announce the lander's arrival and one of Hirst's trademark spot paintings to be used for the calibration of Beagle 2's cameras. The Beagle 2 lost contact with earth but was spotted on Mars' surface ten years later by the UK Space Agency in images taken by a NASA orbiter.
Rowntree says: "In the same way that Damien Hirst got the first artwork on Mars, we got the first music on Mars."
On his first show he played songs by John Lennon, Elbow and The Polyphonic Spree, interspersed with discussions with his studio friend, "researcher George", on "nerdy" topics like Mars.
His first solo single, "London Bridge", was released on 5 July 2022. Dave Rowntree tells us about debut solo single "London Bridge" – and what's next for Blur. NME. 5 July 2022. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
Rowntree's first solo album, Radio Songs, was released on 20 January 2023.
In July 2017, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in law by Greenwich University, becoming an Honorary Doctor of Laws (HonLLD).
In February 2008, he was selected by the Cities of London and Westminster Constituency Labour Party to stand against the incumbent Conservative MP Mark Field at the 2010 general election; Rowntree was defeated at that election. In 2011, he sought selection as the Labour candidate for Norwich South, but lost to Clive Lewis, a journalist and former soldier, who went on to be elected as the constituency's MP.
In the Norfolk County Council election on 4 May 2017, Rowntree was elected as county councillor for the University ward in Norwich. He stood down before the 2021 election, due to the COVID-19 pandemic: in a statement on his website, he said "It has been a joy and a privilege to represent the residents in University Ward, and I've made friendships here that will last a lifetime. I hope that when this is all over, I can get back involved somehow."
In March 2024, Rowntree was selected as Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for the constituency of Mid Sussex in the 2024 general election. The seat is presently held by the Liberal Democrat MP Alison Bennett. Rowntree's campaign focused on housing and town centre regeneration.
In August 2014, Rowntree was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.
Rowntree supported the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. He called the current UK laws banning assisted dying "psychopathic" and show "absolutely no empathy for the sufferer"
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Rowntree is a founding director of the Featured Artists Coalition.
In May 2016, he organised a celebrity "Star Boot Sale" to raise funds for mobile health clinics to help Syrian refugees and host Jordanians in need. Stars manning the stalls included Hot Chip, Melanie C, KT Tunstall and Badly Drawn Boy, with Phil Daniels as auctioneer for special lots, like Kylie Minogue's handbag.
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In 2007, he was dating Michelle de Vries.
In the early 1990s, Rowntree was a heavy drinker. He stopped drinking alcohol in 1993 after a particularly heavy drinking session with members of the band Siouxsie and the Banshees. However, several years later, he began a cocaine habit. This led to a public incident in 2003 when, during a TV interview of Blur for MuchMusic by Canadian journalist Nardwuar the Human Serviette, Rowntree was seen mocking and physically intimidating Nardwuar throughout the interview. Rowntree has apologised several times since for his behaviour, saying that "the day after a cocaine binge I'd sometimes fly into a murderous rage, and that this was the case on that day". Nardwuar accepted Rowntree's apology on Twitter. By 2007, Rowntree stated that he had stopped using drugs and was "active in the recovery community". He keeps a clip of the interview on his phone, to watch if he ever considers relapsing into drug use. Nardwuar later said of Rowntree's apology "It's so nice of him. I love the fact that someone is using my interview for motivational purposes."
Rowntree is a trustee on the board of Release, a charity that campaigns for evidence-based drug policies founded on principles of public health.
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