Coffee and MP! Blur’s Dave Rowntree to stand for Labour in UK general election
The drummer will be the party's candidate for Mid Sussex.
Blur drummer Dave Rowntree has been selected as a Labour Party candidate for the next UK general election.
Rowntree, who has previously served as a Labour councillor in Norwich and lost out in a bid to become an MP in 2010, will stand for the party in Mid Sussex.
He said (via The Guardian): “I’m delighted to have the opportunity to become Labour’s first Mid Sussex MP. Residents have their best chance in a generation to make their vote count and return a Labour MP to parliament.
“The Tories have run out of ideas, and the Lib Dems have run out of steam. I’m running for parliament to provide the energy and vision the area so desperately needs.”
On X/Twitter, he added: “I’m absolutely thrilled to have been selected as the UK Labour candidate for Mid Sussex! Now the work begins.”
Rowntree will play next month’s Coachella in California with the newly reunited Blur, who released new album The Ballad of Darren last year. He also released his debut solo album, Radio Songs, in 2023.
Last year, the band played a host of festivals and headline shows including two Wembley Stadium shows in London.
Reflecting on that gig, the band said that the second of the two gigs was the “best ever” show the Britpop veterans have ever played.
“The Sunday night was the best ever concert,” Damon Albarn said, with bassist Alex James adding: “I was doing live telly yesterday, and the person sitting next to me had been to the gig, and they said, ‘How was Wembley?’ And she just started absolutely gushing and then I nearly started crying.”
“The other good thing about Wembley, it’s really, really loud. You can’t go that loud in Hyde Park. But just in terms of the sound on stage, because I think because we were able to get in there the day before and just bed in.”