This week has marked the launch of Dave Rowntree’s solo career, the Blur drummer has dropped his debut single “London Bridge”. Plans for the musician’s solo career were made concrete last year when he was signed to Cooking Vinyl, the label will release Rowntree’s first LP. The London-based label was founded in 1986 and has remained one of Britain’s leading independent record labels responsible for such acts as The Fratellis, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Madness.
The 58-year-old artist has spoken on his new haunting song, “When I was in my early 20s, in Colchester, I would start to see the number 126 everywhere. I lived at a house that was 126, I’d get a bus that was 126. It felt to me that the universe was trying to alert my attention to 126 for some reason, even though the rational part of me knew that that was b*******.”
Rowntree continues to discuss the track’s inspiration, “So, ‘London Bridge’ was one of those. Things just started happening when I was near London Bridge, or going past on the bus, or on the tube going underneath London Bridge. I would just notice events occurring, and it was slightly unsettling. I had to confront my London Bridge demons and that’s what the song is about.”
The artist continued to discuss his new solo career, “I’m really excited to release my first single as a solo artist. It’s from a body of work that I’ve been putting together over the last couple of years, and I’m humbled to be releasing it on the legendary Cooking Vinyl label.”
Fellow Blur bandmember Damon Albarn previously gave an interview which set the rumour mill into motion when he alluded to a possible union. The Britpop icons last toured together in 2015 when they embarked on a concert series in support of The Magic Whip, the band’s comeback album was released in 2015 and was their first release in twelve years. However, the group have reunited prior, in 2019 the “Parklife” band performed live in Albarn’s hometown of Leytonstone.
Within the discussion, Albarn was asked if this was the end of Blur, the singer replied, “Not At All”. The Gorillaz co-founder continued to discuss the band’s future, “I am just about to have a conversation with people about Blur and I would love to sing all those songs again. I miss the songs. I miss playing with Blur.”
Guitarist Graham Coxon has also spoken about a possible reunion, “That’s always been the thing with Blur – they’ll do it when they really need to and not for any other reason. It doesn’t really seem genuine to just get back together and just do gigs for a bit of spondage. We need to have some sort of focus for how we would work.”
“London Bridge” has been released across all major streaming services and serves as the first taste of Rowntree’s upcoming album. Although the artist’s hotly anticipated album has yet to be given a release date, fans are eager to hear the rest of Rowntree’s solo material.
