Dave Rowntree has spoken about hopes of another Blur reunion, saying that it feels like a “question of when rather than if”.
The drummer opened up about the chances of Blur getting back together to hit the road and make more music together during a recent interview with The Sun.
In the discussion, he looked back at their 2024 set at Coachella – their final show before taking an extended break – and said that, while they seemed less than impressed with the crowd response, they walked away from it with an unspoken feeling of wanting to return to the live stage.
“I think there’ll be something else. There’s nothing in the diary, but you can’t read anything into that. There’s never anything in the diary,” he told the outlet. “We all finished the last tour thinking ‘well, that worked pretty well. That was fun’ – and we haven’t always felt that at the end of three years of touring.”
“I seem to remember us at Heathrow picking up our bags, giving each other a hug and saying, ‘We’ll do that again’,” he added. “That’s my take on it, that it’s a question of when rather than if, but of course, if you ask the other people in the band, they may give you a different answer.”
VAI TER BLUR?
Em entrevista ao “The Sun”, Dave disse que uma reunião do blur é uma questão de “quando”, não de “se”
📰 https://t.co/LM9QQz1S4j pic.twitter.com/faHuftTQcO
— blur brasil (@blurbrazil) August 11, 2026
Rowntree went on to share that it was the spontaneous reunions that keep the idea of hitting the road or going into the studio “exciting”, and added that it allows them to each come back with a fresh approach to songwriting.
“I suppose these days it’s almost full circle in that we don’t do it enough for it to be routine anymore… So we’re back to the thrill of playing together and things being a very exciting idea, the band getting back together, and us being in the studio again,” he shared.
“We only do it every five years or so, so it’s a real pleasure to play with these people and rediscover their musicality. We’re all making music still, so we’re all developing as musicians. It’s really interesting to get back together again and see how our musicality has changed.”
Blur dropped their latest studio album, ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ in 2023, and it came following reunions in 2009 and 2015. In the time since their last shows wrapped up, other members have spoken about the chance of a reunion too.
At the end of 2025, bassist Alex James spoke to NME about his ‘Britpop Classical’ tour, – which saw him cover the likes of Pulp and former rivals Oasis with a full orchestra – and discussed whether it made him want to tour again with the band.
“Do you know what? That last tour was the first time where there was no fucking downside,” he shared. “With the warm-ups and playing the new album at Hammersmith, there were less than 20 shows. Even when we split up, it was only for eight years. It reminded me of how much I love being on tour. It reminded me that playing the bass is the one thing I’ve ever done proficiently well in my entire life. With everything else, I’m blagging it.”
Before then, Graham Coxon spoke to NME about Blur‘s Live At Wembley Stadium concert film, and said that the band don’t want to “leave it too long because we’re knocking on”.
“Creatively, we’ll always be able to do something, but it’s important that we live life for a bit and hopefully not go through something so traumatic before getting back together again,” he said in 2024.
“Damon [Albarn, frontman] always said too that we need to live life so we have something we can bring together if we’re ever going to do anything again. If that all happens, then there shouldn’t be any reason why not.”
Rowntree shared a similar stance when speaking to NME in 2025, sharing: “There’s going to come a time when we’re too old to do it, but we’ll have probably decided to throw the towel in before then anyway. Nobody wants to go on past our sell-by-date.”
More recently, Alex James also doubled down on his willingness to reunite, but quipped that they “need to let Oasis get their stuff out of the way” first.
In the time since their last shows, members of Blur have been busy with their own respective projects. As aforementioned, Alex James has been busy with his ‘Britpop Classical’ shows and his festival, The Big Feastival.
Coxon recently announced the second batch of reissues from the ongoing re-release of his entire solo catalogue, and Rowntree released a photo book in 2025 that documented the rise of Blur.
Damon Albarn has been busy with his other group, Gorillaz, and they released their latest album ‘The Mountain’ earlier this year, and followed it up with a huge tour and their first ever stadium show.
