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Roll me over...
- Thread starter zeitghost
- Start date
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Insufficient explosives?
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That would be cos he's dead
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That would be cos he's dead
Who is?
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Dereck Macintosh "Blaster" Bates.
Blaster Bates was the name used by Derek Macintosh Bates (February 5, 1923 – September 1, 2006), a British explosives and demolition expert; and raconteur, who was born in Crewe. He made a series of sound recordings from the 1960s to 1980s, recounting bizarre and funny experiences from his long career, and also tales of his hobbies of motorcycling, hunting and shooting. He was also much in demand as an after-dinner speaker. He spoke with a strong Cheshire accent. His tales feature much coarse language, and their content is equally strong stuff: once, for instance, he was hired to clear out a farm septic tank with explosives, with predictably gruesome results. Uncompromisingly, Bates chose to describe the episode as "The Shower Of tulip Over Cheshire".
Bates served with the Royal Air Force during World War II as a Handley Page Halifax bomber pilot, and then learned his explosives skills as a bomb disposal specialist.
He was known for carrying sticks of explosive in his pockets, even producing them while giving testimony in trials, to the horror of the court. Most high explosives are harmless unless used with a detonator, but this is not generally understood.
It is reported that Bates retired from active work in 2001 following a stroke, aged 79. However, he continued his speaking engagements. Although Bates was reported to have died in 2004, apparently from a second stroke, this report later proved false: at this time he was living in the town of Sandbach in Cheshire. In August 2006, he was admitted to hospital suffering from congestive heart failure, and on September 1, 2006 died after a long battle with diabetes. His death was confirmed in the Sandbach edition of local newspaper the Crewe Chronicle. He is buried at St Mary's church in Sandbach town centre.
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Should have used Fred Dibnah instead.That would be cos he's dead
That's quite a shocking bit of film ... especially when the building on the right starts moving too.
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... and they'll come and bomb the tulip out of the children's nursery up the road, and shoot up some squaddies on the way home for good measure.
