This time last year Jay Blades was fronting one of the BBC’s top rated shows which regularly attracts seven million viewers.
Now the Repair Shop presenter has been forced to step back after being charged with controlling and coercive behaviour towards his wife.
The star – who rose from the most inauspicious of starts to becoming one of TV’s best-known faces who was fated by the King – is quietly finding a new audience after launching a career as a DJ.
Blades, 54, is offering fans the chance to ‘experience the ultimate weekend vibes’ playing live DJ sets from his spare bedroom, can reveal.
The furniture restorer has swapped his workshop benches for twin decks and a microphone as he spins discs specialising in smoochy soul, gospel and jazz music as well as ‘rare grooves’.
Jay Blades is quietly finding a new audience by launching a career as a DJ, after being charged with controlling and coercive behaviour towards his wife
The furniture restorer has swapped his workshop benches for twin decks and a microphone as he spins discs specialising in smoochy soul, gospel and jazz music as well as ‘rare grooves’
He’s picked up more than 2,000 followers broadcasting three hour late evening weekend sets on an online music streaming service where performers are paid through subscriptions and tips.
Blades has previously dabbled in DJing, playing live gigs.
Now, launching his new career on Mixcloud, Blades wrote: ‘Looking for the perfect soundtrack to your weekend? Look no further!
‘Whether you’re winding down from a hectic week or gearing up for a night out, my live DJ sets are guaranteed to set the perfect mood. Don’t Miss Out!
‘Let’s make every weekend unforgettable with the best tunes and the greatest vibes!’
As well as shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, Blades is also putting on Tuesday night ‘pop ups’.
In one session he can be seen gyrating to the groovy sounds as he tells fans: ‘This is some new vibes you know. You guys are very fortunate’.
Blades, sporting his trademark bold glasses, also appears to have found himself a new catchphrase as he repeatedly says: ‘Oh gosh. Oh gosh.’
Jay is offering fans the chance to ‘experience the ultimate weekend vibes’ playing live DJ sets from his spare bedroom, can reveal
He’s picked up more than 2,000 followers broadcasting three hour weekend sets on an online music streaming service where performers are paid through subscriptions and tips
He adds: ‘I told you Jay don’t do it the normal way – it’s different.’
Urging more fans to sign up he says: ‘Listen people, you make sure that you follow me so you get a notification when I come back up on air and also you’ve got to share the link – you have to share the link because I do things slightly different.’
The shows are live streamed from his home near Wolverhampton in an upstairs room which features his high-tech equipment and a huge collection of records.
It all seems a world away from his appearances on the popular family show which sees members of the public take worn-out heirlooms to be restored by a team of experts.
After launching him onto the road to fame and fortune Blades had the world at his feet as his career ascended to ever more glittering new heights.
The star – who was awarded an MBE in 2021 – went on to form an unlikely friendship with King Charles who appeared in one of the Repair Shop’s most memorable episodes.
Jay tied the knot with glamorous fitness instructor Lisa Zbozen, 43, in a romantic beachfront ceremony in Barbados in December 2022.
He stands accused of physically and emotionally abusing Lisa who heartbreakingly revealed earlier this year that her life was ‘broken’.
Jay was charged in September with the physical and emotional abuse of his wife, Lisa Zbozen, over a 20-month period
Earlier this month the usually dapper six-foot three star wore a puffer jacket, hoodie and joggers as he left Kidderminster magistrates’ court after appearing in the dock charged with controlling and coercive behaviour against Lisa.
Shortly afterwards the BBC and other TV channels began shelving programmes featuring Blades while the presenter announced he had stood down from three of King Charles’ favourite charities.
Blades also resigned from his role as Chancellor at Buckinghamshire New University with immediate effect.
It was at the university where Blades, who left school aged 15 with no qualifications, enrolled as a mature student for a degree in criminology and philosophy in 2001.
Blades was brought up in Hackney, east London and has described how he used to live among rats in his poverty-stricken childhood home after he and his mother Barbara were abandoned by his Jamaican father Trevor when he was just a baby.
The star described how they were left ‘high and dry’ after ‘the man who contributed towards my birth’ had made a string of promises to his mother before disappearing and ‘taking all her money from her’.
He went on to discover he is one of 26 children on his father’s side, with siblings spread across various continents, including six in South America and two in Africa.
Jay has previously told how he was taunted by racist bullies at school.
Suffering from undiagnosed dyslexia he could barely read or write when he left school.
Blades took labouring jobs and worked in factories but by the age of 21 he was living in a Salvation Army hostel for the homeless.
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A year earlier, Blades’ first son Levi, now 33, was born after an on-off relationship with childhood girlfriend, Maria.
He went onto have another son Dior, now 29, from a separate relationship.
Blades told how he began moving on when, through a trustee at the hostel, he was given the opportunity to work as a volunteer at a homeless centre in Oxford.
He described the experience as ‘a beautiful awakening’ and after completing further community enterprise projects, he and his then wife, Jade, a textiles graduate, ventured into furniture restoration.
They set up a charitable social enterprise restoring salvaged furniture as a means of training young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Blades told how he hit rock bottom again after he split from Jade, with whom he has an 18-year-old daughter Zola, in 2015.
The marriage broke down as their charity went bust – and he ended up homeless again living in his car believing he ‘wouldn’t see tomorrow’.
Blades lived on hand outs from friends but he has told how around the same time, television producers saw a short film about the charity and believed he would be the perfect fit for a new upcoming BBC programme – The Repair Shop.
Blades first met King Charles, then the Prince of Wales when he was given his MBE for services to craft.
Within months the pair met again during the filming of a special one-off episode of the show at Dumfries House in Scotland.
The episode saw the future monarch choose a vintage clock and a piece of pottery made for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 to be restored by the show’s team of experts.
Blades went on to attend the coronation at Westminster Abbey in May last year and the King later invited him to his 75th birthday party at Highgrove.
Blades has spoken about his ‘bromance’ with the King who he described as ‘an all right geezer’ and told how they bonded over their shared passions for heritage craft and restorations.
Such was their friendship there seemed nothing unnatural when Blades broke protocol by touching Charles on the arm during the filming of the episode.
Blades went on to present a series of documentaries which has seen him team up with celebrities including Dame Judi Dench and Sir David Jason.
A new series of the award-winning show and a host of other TV projects were in the pipeline when Blades was arrested in May and later charged.
Shortly afterwards, it was revealed he was taking a break from filming with sources saying the decision was also linked to the violent death of his uncle Richard Braithwaite, 72, in North London in March. A neighbour has been charged with murder.
In a video on his Instagram account Blades said: ‘I’m coming off social media for a bit, and I’ll be back in a bit.
‘Going to go and get some therapy and just chill out. Please, take care of each other, take care of yourself, and I’ll see you guys soon.’
After Blades’ court appearance TV Channels including Channel 4 and Channel 5 began shelving shows Blades was due to star in.
New Repair Shop’ episodes featuring Blades were pulled from schedules while a Christmas special is also said to be ‘up in the air’.
Meanwhile Blades informed the King’s Foundation he was stepping down from his role as an ambassador for the educational charity.
He also quit as co-chair and trustee of Heritage Crafts,and as ambassador of the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust. King Charles is patron of both organisations.
Blades’ personal site previously said: ‘He is the antithesis of the throwaway culture that surrounds us, believing that the old can become new, the worn can shine again, and the broken can be fixed.
‘It is perhaps no coincidence that his belief in the restoration of objects stems from a belief that humans too can be repaired, fixed and rejuvenated.
‘He is the living embodiment of that. A man whose backstory will give you an idea of the hurdles that he has had to overcome, and how those considerable challenges make the ascent to where he is today seem all that more impressive.
‘Jay’s forever driven by doing better.’
Blades will appear at Worcester Crown Court for a pre-trial hearing on October 11.