John Thomas Blades (8 December 1959 – 25 November 2011) was an Australian experimental music artist and member of The Loop Orchestra; he also worked as a radio broadcaster and documentary maker, and as a civil engineer.
[1] In 1980 while studying civil engineering at University of Sydney, Blades was a founding member of electronic music group The East End Butchers with Doyle.
[9]By 1993 Blades' MS had progressed and he was wheelchair-bound but he continued with his work at the Roads & Traffic Authority, with The Loop Orchestra and on radio.
[10] In 2007, Australian violinist, Jon Rose, spoke at the 9th Annual Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address (see Peggy Glanville-Hicks), Rose discussed Blades' enthusiasm and commitment to the Sydney music community: Multiple sclerosis sentenced John Blades to a wheelchair, where no doubt it was expected that he would spiral slowly out of view.
[11]During 1981 John Blades was invited by Ian Hartley to appear on the 2MBS' radio programme, Disc Noir, to present samples of his music collection.
[12] Fielding had suggested the name of the show, inspired by "a flexi disc released with a New York art magazine called Smegma, an audio collage".
[7] From 1998 Blades presented a fortnightly radio programme, Background Noise, with initial co-host Fielding, and from 2003, another ex-Severed Heads musician, Garry Bradbury[13] on 2MBS.