| Biography | James Blades OBE was an English percussionist.
In 1954, Blades was appointed Professor of Percussion at the Royal Academy of Music. As a chamber musician he played with the Melos Ensemble and the English Chamber Orchestra. Blades' pupils included the rock drummers Max Sedgley, Carl Palmer, and Richard James Burgess as well as percussionist Evelyn Glennie.
His most famous and widely heard performances were the sound of the drum playing "V-for-Victory" in Morse code, the introduction to the BBC broadcasts made to the European Resistance during World War II, and providing the sound of the gong seen at the start of films produced by the Rank Organisation. Blades played this sound on a tam-tam. On screen Blades's sound was mimed to by the "Gongman". |