This is a gem!

A recording of the sights and sounds of Morecambe made over 40 years ago has been shared publicly for the first time since it was produced.

Sounds of Morecambe and District was a cassette made by a small team led by Peter Mason-Milward in 1981.

As well as the sounds of Marineland, go karts at Heysham Head and the Harbour Band Arena it also featured interviews with some of the stars of the day who visited the area. They include presenters Pete Murray and Isla St Clair along with Colin Crompton, the comic whose routine took aim at Morecambe in TV’s The Comedians.

Using recording equipment from Lancaster and Morecambe Hospital Radio where Peter was chairman, the result is an extraordinary audio archive of the resort in the 1980s.

Isla St Clair had the honour of switching on Morecambe illuminations in 1980 and told Peter about her love for the town. Meanwhile Colin Crompton said his jokes about Morecambe as ‘a cemetery with lights’ and a place where ‘they all turn out to watch the bacon slicer’ were taken too seriously by tourism staff and on the tape admits the town is ‘not bad.’

The cassette was produced as an audio postcard of the area with around 150 sold by Peter and his colleagues to tourists staying at hotels around Morecambe.

We met up recently with his wife Kath to listen back to Morecambe over 40 years ago.

1' the laughing clown

1'30" Pete Murray

4' Peter explains where the idea came from

5'50" Memories of working with Eric Morecambe

7' Top interview tips from Eric!

10'30" Isla St Clair switches the lights on

12'30" Colin Crompton

15' Gypsy Lee

16' Peter explains how people gave time to the recordings

16'30" Marineland

17' Heysham Head

19' Wrestling on the Central Pier

19' 30" The sand train to Heysham