I'm just back off holiday and find that Derek "Blaster" Bates has passed on. (See Obituary)..

I have often played his motorcycle-related comedy tape casettes, especially the one about the "The Naming of Knicker Brook"..

I never met him but have his tapes and will now again play them to his memory.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/sto...06,00.html

Ian - thank you for spotting this and passing it on.
I had most of his records at one time (sadly lent too many out, that never found their way back) and saw him on stage a few years ago at the City Varieties in Leeds.
The brilliant engineer and tuner who looked after my DMW in the 60s then fixed me up with the ex-Peter Inchley AJS 250, George Ratcliff, lived in a little village called Wheaton Aston, right in Bates Country, and one day when we went for a pint of Canal Number 9 at the local, Batesy was in there. A session resulted - I will say no more.
If anyone can do this, please pass on condolences to his family, he gave a lot of people a lot of pleasure.