Blair, originally from Whanganui, moved to Wellington with dreams for infamy and a desire to upset the status quo. Recruiting Tim and a 14-year-old Dan as drummer the Deaf Terrorists began life as a short-lived four-piece called One Inch Bitch, which included Tried For Treason guitarist Aaron Pinkham. After Pinky gapped it the now three-piece embraced a raw, stripped-down sound, sans-guitar, and became the Deaf Terrorists.

Blair’s frenzied lyrics, which raged against government, capitalism and existential woes, were matched by his infamous in-your-face antics, sometimes involving flour, noodles, and sandwiches being held at audiences. Their sole released material consists of the “Chaos/Reclaim The Streets” featured on the 2001 Gowned & Bagged: Wellington Youth Compilation. A further 13 demo tracks were recorded that remain unreleased.

He really didn’t give a fuck. It’s weird, because I used to use the description ‘NZ’s answer to GG Allin’, but that gives too much and too little credit to Blair’s stage show. Some shows became notorious, such as playing Indigo’s last All Ages gig, for a crowd of 13-18 yr olds and Blair running in halfway through a song to attack Tim with a plate of curry, later exposing himself to the audience (which he also did at a christian community hall show in Wanganui!), or the show where nobody would eat the sandwiches he’d made so he threw them at the audience and then attempted to climb the Thistle Hall rafters to drop spaghetti on people, only to drop it too early and have it land in the PA equipment!!

Dan Fraser

Deaf Terrorists performed at Punkfest 2000 but disbanded shortly after, with Blair briefly playing drums in three-piece punk band V.B.F. before returning to vocals with Padded Cell. Dan Fraser went on to play guitar and vocals in bands like Bonus Donor, Shumway, Shortlived, Bonecruncher, Phone Sex Robots, Pop OD, and Forced Starvation.