Blur drummer Dave Rowntree says another reunion of the rock band feels like "a question of when rather than if," NME reported on August 12, citing a recent interview he gave to The Sun. Rowntree pointed back to the band's 2024 Coachella set, their last show before an extended break, saying the members left the festival with an unspoken feeling that they wanted to play together again.
"I seem to remember us at Heathrow picking up our bags, giving each other a hug and saying, 'We'll do that again,'" Rowntree said, adding that nothing is booked but that the band tends to reunite roughly every five years. Blur released their most recent studio album, The Ballad of Darren, in 2023, following earlier reunions in 2009 and 2015.
Rowntree is not the only member who has talked up a return. Bassist Alex James told NME at the end of 2025 that touring again "reminded me of how much I love being on tour," and guitarist Graham Coxon said in 2024 that the band did not want to "leave it too long because we're knocking on." Frontman Damon Albarn has said the members need to live their own lives first so they have something to bring back to the band.
Rowntree struck a similar note when he spoke to NME in 2025, saying there would come a time when the band is too old to keep going, but that "nobody wants to go on past our sell-by-date." James has more recently doubled down on his own willingness to reunite too, though he joked that the band "need to let Oasis get their stuff out of the way" first.
In the meantime, the members have stayed busy on their own projects: James with his Britpop Classical shows and his Big Feastival, Coxon reissuing his solo catalogue, Rowntree with a photo book on Blur's history, and Albarn touring stadiums with Gorillaz behind their album The Mountain, all keeping the rock band's name in the news between records.
The facts
- Dave Rowntree spoke to The Sun about the chances of another Blur reunion
- He called it a question of when rather than if
- He pointed to how the band felt leaving their 2024 Coachella set
- Blur's last studio album, The Ballad of Darren, came out in 2023
- Earlier reunions took place in 2009 and 2015
- Alex James and Graham Coxon have both spoken about wanting to reunite
- Rowntree told NME in 2025 nobody wants to go past the band's "sell-by-date"
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