Dave Rowntree was born on May 8th 1964, in Colchester.  His family is made of his
mom and dad and his sister Sarah.  He is also married to his wife Paula. 

Dave is the oldest member of Blur, and the only one that is married.  He won't reveal
much about his private life.  He can play the bagpipes, but he fell in love with the
drum kit at school.  Dave's musical ear comes from both his dad who had commuted
for 40 years to his job as a BBC sound engineer, and his mother, who had played in
the London Orchestra.  

The young Dave had been taught to play drums the hard way - by a gargantuan
Scotsman who taped a sixpence to the drum skin and smacked the pupil across the
back of the head if his stick ever missed the target. By a coincidence, Dave had also
attended some of the Saturday morning jazz classes run by Graham's father.
                
Before he joined the other lads he worked as a computer engineer, after studying for a
HND in Computer Science at Woolwich.  Dave had also played with Graham in
various shabby groups in Colchester, the most worthy of which was "Idle Vice". 
Other bands that he played in were "Hazel Dean" and "The Carpets Eaters From
Hell".  Just like Graham, he became a protest vegetarian for a while but he failed coz
of malnutrition. 

For three months he also lived in London as a squat punk with a mohawk and played
at various squat gigs, after which he moved wholesale to France and made a meagre
living busking and playing in small-time clubs. 

Dave was the last member to join "The Circus" and he was recruited by Graham.
They then changed their name to "Seymour".... 

Nowadays Dave lives with his wife Paula and their cats, in his sparetime he listens to
his fave band, the Prodigy, and flies around in his own aeroplane.