Happy Birthday Dave Rowntree - Blur drummer turns 49!

David Alexander De Horne Rowntree, a.k.a Dave Rowntree (born on May 8th 1964, aged 49) from Blur, is an English musician and the drummer of Blur. He is also a registered solicitor and political activist, and has an interest in computer animation and graphic design. Though known as the "quiet one" in Blur, Dave regularly updates his Instagram, Twitter and Facebook stream, even posting pictures straight from the backstage of Blur concerts.

Tweet Dave a birthday greeting at @DaveRowntree 

Blur are currently on a week-long visit to Hong Kong, where they played an energetic concert at the Asia World Expo arena.

BLUR FACT: Did you know- Dave Rowntree is the oldest member of Blur, being 3 years older than Blur frontman Damon Albarn and guitarist Graham Coxon (both born in 1969). He's 4 years older than bassist Alex James, who is a year younger than Damon and Graham.

Happy 49th Birthday Dave!

Check out the top Dave Rowntree quotes of all time HERE.

Blur to play South America to wrap up 2013

You say it, and we will listen - at least that's the vibe that Blur's management have been giving out recently. The band have been announcing tour dates and venues for their 2013 shows steadily since late last year, and now it seems that a South American date will be added to the list. 

Sara-m-a, an active fan on the forums, sends in an exciting piece of news - Blur have answered some of the fan's private messages saying that there will be a South America date for Blur in November 2013. 

Blur announced that they will be headlining Coachella in California, USA just this week. The news was met with cheers from the fans who are in America. However, fans in other parts of the world have not been too pleased with the news. 

For months before, fans from around the world have been petitioning Blur to perform in South America as part of their 2013 semi-world tour. 

Facebook petitions such as 'BLUR Tour North & South America - Petition' have been making an online presence within the fan community. The group also met success with a campaign to push the hashtag #BlurArgentina and #BlurLatinoAmerica2013 to trend on twitter earlier this month. 

And the efforts seem to be working - Blur has replied "We hear you" to the fan's private messages and words for a new tour venue. 

The Blur fans from Chile and Argentina also managed to get their own trending topic, asking Blur to visit them again. 

Photo credits to the Blur fan from Argentina

Sara-m-a, an active fan on the official Blur forums, is one of the main leaders of the petitions. She speaks a little about why the cause is important to her and her fellow fans:

"Since Blur gave us hints that the band could do a extensive tour, the long forgotten and neglected fans from Latin America have been making several campaigns on the internet. It's remarkable the number of fans club and webpages dedicated to the band. 

It seems that people are trying to get their pleas to the band all the way from South America. Lets not forget that Blur visited México just twice and Brazil and Argentine just once, during '99 tour. No wonder latin fans feel ignored."

Since the Blur tour dates have already been decided long ago by their management, it is not surprising that the announcements are rolling out in a controlled, one-by-one basis. Having heard all the positive energy from the fans' online campaigns, the management has slipped out another piece of good news for the band - a new tour date to wrap up 2013. 

Stay tuned and remember to subscribe for more details about this new tour. 

To join in on discussions and other Blur-related chat, check out these Blur fan pages and fan clubs: 

Blur México

Blur USA 

Blur Colombia 
Blur Argentina / Group 
Blur Chile / Group
Blur Perú 
Blur Brasil 

Comunidad De Blur 

Blur Tour 2013 - Full dates and rundown  HERE

Blur confirmed for Mexico HERE

Blur Europe Tour News  HERE

Order the new Blur: Parklife (Live at Hyde Park CD / DVD) HERE

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Graham Coxon tweets about HMV Closure

Music mega-store HMV recently announced that they are entering administration, having suspended their stocks on the stock market and ending talks with creditors.

Blur's Graham Coxon reacted to the store's announcement, and wrote on Twitter: "One day they might come up with an alternative to shoving everything into a computer.. Eggs.. Baskets.. Digital is a con."

Graham also tweeted a popular tweet about the store's status: "They'll be closing down musicians soon.. It ain't gonna get any better."

Other musicians have also voiced out their opinions about HMV's bankruptcy and debt situation . The Cribs also created a storm on Twitter, and tweeted - "Regarding all those theorizing Payola may be our final album, in light of the HMV news it certainly seems that way...#downloadsarentalbums."

 "I'm really sad about HMV. Say what you want about it, but I'm genuinely sad" tweeted Ellie Goulding in another tweet.

One reason why the music store has gone bust is because of the technological age of music - the largest retailer in music is digital, and stores like iTunes have been one of the most popular sources for downloading music. With digital music being available to everyone with internet, it is of little surprise stores like HMV are unable to sustain business.

Blur's frontman Damon Albarn, however, is an avid supporter of digital music, having made the new Gorillaz album 'The Fall' available for free digital download. Much of his recent work and all of the Blur re-issues have been made public on digital purchases.

Check out Graham Coxon's recently revamped Twitter page and follow the Blur guitarist's musings by clicking HERE.

Blur Tour 2013 - Full dates and rundown  HERE

Blur confirmed for Mexico HERE

Blur Europe Tour News  HERE

Order the new Blur: Parklife (Live at Hyde Park CD / DVD) HERE

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Stephen Street not producing new Blur material - 2012

The rumours that Stephen Street is producing any new Blur material can be officially ruled out. Street, who produced many of Blur's top britpop albums including the best-selling 'Parklife' tweeted this on May 23rd 2012:

This tweet was in reply to Alex Jame's great announcement - that Blur are recording in the studio together, as of May 2012.

Most of the Blur news recently have been from twitter...for those who signed up for the micro-blogging website, follow Blur (official), Alex James, Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Dave Rowntree and maybe they will post more revealing tweets as summer rolls along! 

Lets just hope that "in the studio" means recording new material, as well as practicing hard for the Hyde Park gigs! 

Damon Albarn says it's the End of Blur! Read HERE

Is Damon and Graham Coxon recording together? Find out HERE

Check out Blur's rumoured new album HERE. 

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Alex James - official Twitter

https://twitter.com/#!/TheAlexJames


Click to follow the Alex James on his official twitter page! He's real, he tweets and writes many cheesy things...