dave rowntree.
David Rowntree was born on May 8th, 1964 in Colchester. His dad used to work for the BBC as a sound engeineer and his mum was in the London Orchestra. He has one sister called Sarah who he describes as "ace". His first instrument was a chanter (sort of like bagpipes, apparently). His first band was called Idle Vice. Met Graham in a pub in Colchester.
role in blur.
He plays the drums and the timpani. Occasionally does a bit of programming and engineering. He also plays guitar on the track "On the way to the club".solo projects.
Nanomation:Dave's main project outside the band is computer animation. He started the company Nanomation in 1999 and has since done 3D animation for 'The South Bank Show', 'The Eleven O'Clock Show' and 'MTV'. As well as animation, he also builds and programmes computers, and develops Softimage shaders.
Here is an interview with him about how he first got into computers and what he thinks of Napster, among other things...
Beagle 2:
A British unmanned spacecraft named Beagle Two - after Darwin's ship - will land on Mars in
November 2003 and broadcast a specially written fanfare composed by Blur. The track is called
"Beagle 2" and was one of the b-sides of No distance left to run. Dave and Alex have been doing odd
bits of promotion for the project along with Professor Colin Pillinger of the Beagle 2 lander team.
Blurtalk have an interview with the professor.
what he says about the others
"We all thought Alex was a bit of a wanker.""He's one of the best bass players in the world."
(on the "Blur" period"): "...we began to accept each other as four individuals. ... Everybody started to get a voice. ... Everyone could do their own thing."
"We can all do good stuff on our own. It takes the four of us together to be this good. We all need each other. Which is probably why we all hate each other as well..."
trivia.
His most well-known hobbies are flying planes and doing computer animation.He recently programmed a ring-tone of Music is my radar and a mobile phone logo (see www.iobox.com).
His wife's name is Paola.
His hero is a sports commentator called Brian Johnstone.
He's a vegetarian.
He once had a mohawk haircut.
Before he joined Blur, he worked full time as a computer programmer.
He spent two years busking in France in his pre-Circus days.
Early bands included the Strategic Arms Quartet and Idle Vice.
He likes the Prodigy.
web-sites devoted to the man.
Dave Rowntree.Dave Rocks!!
Smarter Than The Average Bear: Dave Rowntree Is Cooler Than You.