Blaster Bates was the name used by Derek Macintosh Bates, a British explosives and demolition expert; and raconteur. 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. 聽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 Shit Over Cheshire.
Following the end of World War II, he visited his old employer, Rolls Royce, with a view to resuming his old job but was told 'We're cutting down, you know'. It was following this that Bates began his own business as a demolition expert drawing on expertise learned in his war duties. He later noted that this was a good decision as 'over the years I've managed to do alright while they've (Rolls Royce) gone steadily bust'.
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.