Post by bluetornados on Mar 7, 2024 15:12:57 GMT
Blur drummer Dave Rowntree battled homelessness, alcoholism and cocaine binges and spent the 1990s fighting chart wars with Oasis - but is now trading his sticks for pamphlets as Labour candidate in the election..by Aiden Radnege.
i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/07/11/82154867-13168067-image-a-14_1709810380078.jpg
Blur drummer Dave Rowntree has been chosen as Labour candidate for Mid Sussex
Blur drummer took on Oasis in the 1990s in the 'Battle of Britpop' but now he is swapping his sticks for pamphlets and taking on the Tories as a Labour general election candidate.
Chart-topping rocker Rowntree, 59, has been chosen as the party's candidate for Mid Sussex, it was revealed last night - hours after he launched a series of attacks on Jeremy Hunt's Budget.
The star - whose band's albums include Modern Life Is Rubbish, Parklife and The Great Escape - has long been a committed Labour activist and would-be candidate, after overcoming alcohol and cocaine addictions.
But he admitted he first joined Labour as part of 'a mid-life crisis' after Blur took a break, while he has ridiculed Tony Blair for jumping on the Britpop bandwagon during the 'Cool Britannia' 1990s - when Noel Gallagher from rivals Oasis attended a Downing Street party.
i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/07/11/82154873-13168067-image-a-16_1709810438999.jpg
Blur reformed and toured last year, including this gig with Rowntree on drums at the Les Vieilles Charrues music festival in Carhaix-Plouguer, western France, on July 14th.
And he has appeared non-committal in current Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in recent years, insisting: 'It's pointless saying how he's doing at the moment.'
Blur formed in London in 1988 after Rowntree and bassist friend Alex James moved from Colchester and teamed up with singer Damon Albarn and guitarist Alex James.
They became one of the most successful bands of the 1990s with hits including There's No Other Way, Girls And Boys, Song 2 and Tender.
Country House topped the charts in August 1995 ahead of Roll With It by Oasis, after what was hyped as 'The Battle Of Britpop' playing up rivalry between the groups.
The band have taken several lengthy breaks but returned last year with Brit Award-nominated album The Ballad Of Darren and sell-out gigs at Wembley Stadium.
Now Rowntree is turning his attentions back to politics in a move which comes after Tom Gray, of the rock band Gomez was chosen last December as the Labour candidate for the Brighton Pavilion constituency in the upcoming general election.
Rowntree was scathing yesterday of Jeremy Hunt in a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, during the chancellor's showpiece Commons statement.
Rowntree posted: 'This is the weirdest budget ever. A bunch of minor policy announcements. Is there a flourish at the end?'
He went on to comment: 'More bogus productivity savings instead of proper public services funding. This time AI magics these savings into existence. Pathetic.'
i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/07/11/82158711-13168067-image-a-41_1709812389010.jpg
He concluded with: 'What a waste of an hour. Tiny policy announcements. Fiddling with the tax system. Bogus productivity savings rather than proper funding. AI fixing all problems.'
Just hours later his next post declared: 'I'm absolutely thrilled to have been selected as the @uklabour candidate for Mid Sussex! Now the work begins.'
This will not be his first tilt at becoming an MP.
When he stood against the Conservatives' Mark Field at the 2010 general election, he opened his election pamphlet with: 'My name is David Rowntree, and as well as being the drummer in the band Blur, I am your local Labour candidate.'
His leaflet while campaigning for the Cities of London and Westminster seat was also open about his past homelessness, alcohol abuse and drug addiction.
He explained to an interviewer at the time: 'The good things in my life, and the bad things in my life – I just thought I'd be completely open about it all.
'Politicians do have to try and present themselves as ordinary people. But you need to do that in a way which makes you look least like an a***.'
He stopped drinking in 1993 but later developed a cocaine habit, which he blamed for his aggressiveness towards Canadian journalist Nardwuar the Human Serviette during a TV interview in 2003.
Rowntree later apologised, saying: 'The day after a cocaine binge I'd sometimes fly into a murderous rage, and that this was the case on that day.'
Coxon had left the band at that point and the band took a break - coinciding with Rowntree's first move into politics.
i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/07/11/82154911-13168067-image-a-28_1709811344413.jpg
Graham Coxon, left, left in 2001 but rejoined in 2008 and two years later they attended this world premiere of documentary No Distance Left To Run at Odeon West End in London
He told the Guardian in 2010: 'It was pretty much a mid-life crisis - there was a fairly well-documented split in the band, I was turning 40 and I was going from having no time on my hands to having rather a lot.
'And I started waking up with that angsty feeling at four in the morning, going: "Oh my God, I've wasted my life."
'I had to do something about that and so I started turning up at the local Labour party.'
Rowntree went on to become chair of their London's West End branch and tried in vain in April 2007 to be elected as Labour councillor for the Marylebone High Street ward on Westminster City Council.
A year after that 2010 general election defeat he lost out to future shadow cabinet minister Clive Lewis for Labour's nomination to stand to be Norwich South MP.
But he did become a Norfolk county councillor in 2017 for the University ward in Norwich, before standing down ahead of 2021 elections.
Senior New Labour figures including Alistair Campbell reached out to Blur in their Britpop heyday but they resisted getting involved - unlike Noel Gallagher who was pictured drinking champagne at a Downing Street party in July 1997.
Rowntree told the NME in July 2022: 'What got my goat about Tony Blair inviting all the bands to No 10 was that that was the standard way politicians had interacted with musicians for generations.
'Cool Britannia was nothing to do with us. We never said Britannia was cool. It was like when Harold Wilson called The Beatles round.
i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/07/11/82158455-13168067-image-a-37_1709811842578.jpg
They returned to the BRIT Awards in February 2012 where they won the Outstanding Contribution to Music prize at the O2 Arena in London
After overcoming his alcohol and cocaine addictions from the 1990s and turn of the millennium, he obtained a pilot's licence and also trained to be a solicitor.
Rowntree spent some time in 2007 working in the criminal department of London law firm Kingsley Napley and 10 years later received an honorary doctorate of law from Greenwich University.
He opposes the death penalty and is a patron of Amicus, which provides legal representation for people on death row in the US.
And in May 2016 he organised a celebrity boot sale to raise money for mobile health clinics for Syrian refugees, offering donated items from stars such a Melanie C, KT Tunstall and Kylie Minogue who provided a handbag.
i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/07/11/82154867-13168067-image-a-14_1709810380078.jpg
Blur drummer Dave Rowntree has been chosen as Labour candidate for Mid Sussex
Blur drummer took on Oasis in the 1990s in the 'Battle of Britpop' but now he is swapping his sticks for pamphlets and taking on the Tories as a Labour general election candidate.
Chart-topping rocker Rowntree, 59, has been chosen as the party's candidate for Mid Sussex, it was revealed last night - hours after he launched a series of attacks on Jeremy Hunt's Budget.
The star - whose band's albums include Modern Life Is Rubbish, Parklife and The Great Escape - has long been a committed Labour activist and would-be candidate, after overcoming alcohol and cocaine addictions.
But he admitted he first joined Labour as part of 'a mid-life crisis' after Blur took a break, while he has ridiculed Tony Blair for jumping on the Britpop bandwagon during the 'Cool Britannia' 1990s - when Noel Gallagher from rivals Oasis attended a Downing Street party.
i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/07/11/82154873-13168067-image-a-16_1709810438999.jpg
Blur reformed and toured last year, including this gig with Rowntree on drums at the Les Vieilles Charrues music festival in Carhaix-Plouguer, western France, on July 14th.
And he has appeared non-committal in current Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in recent years, insisting: 'It's pointless saying how he's doing at the moment.'
Blur formed in London in 1988 after Rowntree and bassist friend Alex James moved from Colchester and teamed up with singer Damon Albarn and guitarist Alex James.
They became one of the most successful bands of the 1990s with hits including There's No Other Way, Girls And Boys, Song 2 and Tender.
Country House topped the charts in August 1995 ahead of Roll With It by Oasis, after what was hyped as 'The Battle Of Britpop' playing up rivalry between the groups.
The band have taken several lengthy breaks but returned last year with Brit Award-nominated album The Ballad Of Darren and sell-out gigs at Wembley Stadium.
Now Rowntree is turning his attentions back to politics in a move which comes after Tom Gray, of the rock band Gomez was chosen last December as the Labour candidate for the Brighton Pavilion constituency in the upcoming general election.
Rowntree was scathing yesterday of Jeremy Hunt in a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, during the chancellor's showpiece Commons statement.
Rowntree posted: 'This is the weirdest budget ever. A bunch of minor policy announcements. Is there a flourish at the end?'
He went on to comment: 'More bogus productivity savings instead of proper public services funding. This time AI magics these savings into existence. Pathetic.'
i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/07/11/82158711-13168067-image-a-41_1709812389010.jpg
He concluded with: 'What a waste of an hour. Tiny policy announcements. Fiddling with the tax system. Bogus productivity savings rather than proper funding. AI fixing all problems.'
Just hours later his next post declared: 'I'm absolutely thrilled to have been selected as the @uklabour candidate for Mid Sussex! Now the work begins.'
This will not be his first tilt at becoming an MP.
When he stood against the Conservatives' Mark Field at the 2010 general election, he opened his election pamphlet with: 'My name is David Rowntree, and as well as being the drummer in the band Blur, I am your local Labour candidate.'
His leaflet while campaigning for the Cities of London and Westminster seat was also open about his past homelessness, alcohol abuse and drug addiction.
He explained to an interviewer at the time: 'The good things in my life, and the bad things in my life – I just thought I'd be completely open about it all.
'Politicians do have to try and present themselves as ordinary people. But you need to do that in a way which makes you look least like an a***.'
He stopped drinking in 1993 but later developed a cocaine habit, which he blamed for his aggressiveness towards Canadian journalist Nardwuar the Human Serviette during a TV interview in 2003.
Rowntree later apologised, saying: 'The day after a cocaine binge I'd sometimes fly into a murderous rage, and that this was the case on that day.'
Coxon had left the band at that point and the band took a break - coinciding with Rowntree's first move into politics.
i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/07/11/82154911-13168067-image-a-28_1709811344413.jpg
Graham Coxon, left, left in 2001 but rejoined in 2008 and two years later they attended this world premiere of documentary No Distance Left To Run at Odeon West End in London
He told the Guardian in 2010: 'It was pretty much a mid-life crisis - there was a fairly well-documented split in the band, I was turning 40 and I was going from having no time on my hands to having rather a lot.
'And I started waking up with that angsty feeling at four in the morning, going: "Oh my God, I've wasted my life."
'I had to do something about that and so I started turning up at the local Labour party.'
Rowntree went on to become chair of their London's West End branch and tried in vain in April 2007 to be elected as Labour councillor for the Marylebone High Street ward on Westminster City Council.
A year after that 2010 general election defeat he lost out to future shadow cabinet minister Clive Lewis for Labour's nomination to stand to be Norwich South MP.
But he did become a Norfolk county councillor in 2017 for the University ward in Norwich, before standing down ahead of 2021 elections.
Senior New Labour figures including Alistair Campbell reached out to Blur in their Britpop heyday but they resisted getting involved - unlike Noel Gallagher who was pictured drinking champagne at a Downing Street party in July 1997.
Rowntree told the NME in July 2022: 'What got my goat about Tony Blair inviting all the bands to No 10 was that that was the standard way politicians had interacted with musicians for generations.
'Cool Britannia was nothing to do with us. We never said Britannia was cool. It was like when Harold Wilson called The Beatles round.
i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/07/11/82158455-13168067-image-a-37_1709811842578.jpg
They returned to the BRIT Awards in February 2012 where they won the Outstanding Contribution to Music prize at the O2 Arena in London
After overcoming his alcohol and cocaine addictions from the 1990s and turn of the millennium, he obtained a pilot's licence and also trained to be a solicitor.
Rowntree spent some time in 2007 working in the criminal department of London law firm Kingsley Napley and 10 years later received an honorary doctorate of law from Greenwich University.
He opposes the death penalty and is a patron of Amicus, which provides legal representation for people on death row in the US.
And in May 2016 he organised a celebrity boot sale to raise money for mobile health clinics for Syrian refugees, offering donated items from stars such a Melanie C, KT Tunstall and Kylie Minogue who provided a handbag.