High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! John Thomas Blades (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. In 1982 he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and used a wheelchair from 1993. In 2010, his radio documentary, The Too Hard Basket, won the Walkley Award for `Social Equity Journalism – All Media`, and the `Radio Documentary of the Year Award` from the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. Blades died on 25 November 2011 after complications from cancer therapy.