Tape Letters

“Other things came, like telephones, and they stopped the tapes.”Generations of Scottish-Pakistanis sent and received Tape Letters, before new means of communication took over: from email to instant messaging, video calls to voice notes.This episode explores evolving technology. How does it impact the use of language, and linguistic identities?“Ask the younger children! What does it mean to be Pakistani for them, through their lens?”Episode creditsContributors: Kausar Ilyas, Asghar Mohammed, Mohammed Khan, Nadira Saddiq, Khadijah Khurram, Suriaya Hussain, Izaz Ur Rahman, Mirza Muhammad Saeed, Naila Waseem, Mohammed Farooq, Nazia Majid, Nassir Ellahi, Parveen Sajid, Rehana Ahmad, Khalida HussainCassette tape donors: Mohammed Ishaq, Khadijah Khurram, Rehana AhmadProject director: Wajid YaseenPodcast presenter: Tabassum NiamatPodcast production & sound design: Steve UrquhartTape Letters Scotland is a Modus Arts project, made possible by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. 

“We came here by coach. It took one month to reach here...”Throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s, people migrated to Scotland from Pakistan in significant numbers. What does the archive of Tape Letters reveal about this crucial time?This episode explores what life was like for those who came to Scotland, and for those who remained in Pakistan. How did cassette tapes keep them connected?“I was so happy that I started crying while listening... I can still feel it now!”Episode creditsContributors: Shavana Abdul-Jabbar, Nasreen Akhter, Asghar Mohammed, Parveen Sajid, Nassir Ellahi, Assia Ali, Nadira Saddiq, Mohammed Farooq, Nazia Majid, Jamila Bibi, Musarat Begum, Kausar Ilyas, Munwar Sultan, Mussarat Arshad, Mirza Muhammad Saeed Cassette tape donors: Mohammed Ishaq, Khadijah KhurramProject director: Wajid YaseenPodcast presenter: Tabassum NiamatPodcast production & sound design: Steve UrquhartTape Letters Scotland is a Modus Arts project, made possible by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. 

“You go back and listen. People that have passed now, you can hear their voices… it just brings back memories.”Unlike a letter or telegram, or even a video on a screen, a cassette recording can feel like the person is right there in the room.This episode reflects on the deep emotional impact of Tape Letters. It also explores questions of identity, nationality, and culture.“I take pride in being Scottish, I’m Scottish-Pakistani… [but] I'm torn between two cultures, two languages, two countries.” Episode creditsContributors: Izaz Ur Rahman, Naila Waseem, Mohammed Farooq, Dean Mohammed, Jamila Bibi, Mirza Muhammad Saeed, Nadira Saddiq, Shenaz Ahmad, Faria Khan, Kausar Ilyas, Nasim Hussain, Akeel Ahmad, Khalida HussainCassette tape donors: Khadijah Khurram, Mohammed Ishaq, Kauser Riaz, Rehana AhmadProject director: Wajid YaseenPodcast presenter: Tabassum NiamatPodcast production & sound design: Steve UrquhartTape Letters Scotland is a Modus Arts project, made possible by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. 

“Imagine the feeling of pressing play on a cassette tape that’s just arrived from some 5,000 miles away…” What is a 'Tape Letter'? Why did people exchange news and greetings with each other on cassette, and how did they do it? Our series starts with an overview of the Tape Letters Scotland project, and a flavour of the anticipation and excitement of sending and receiving long distance cassette recordings. “For us it was a novelty, sort of like a joke. Whereas Mum and Dad, they were more emotional…” Episode creditsContributors: Assia Ali, Mohammed Farooq, Nassir Ellahi, Izaz Ur Rahman, Khadijah Khurram, Mirza Muhammad Saeed, Parveen Sajid, Nadira Saddiq, Faria Khan, Saima Begum, Nasreen Ali, Akeel Ahmad, Shavana Abdul-Jabbar, Seriya Iqbal, Aqsa Mohammed, Kausar ArshadCassette tape donors: Mohammed Ishaq, Sameena Kauser Younus, Shavana Abdul-Jabbar, Khadijah Khurram, Rehana AhmadProject director: Wajid YaseenPodcast presenter: Tabassum NiamatPodcast production & sound design: Steve UrquhartTape Letters Scotland is a Modus Arts project, made possible by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. 

On 20 January 2025, Tape Letters, the award-winning podcast, returns with a brand-new second series: Tape Letters Scotland. The Tape Letters Scotland project shines a light on the practice of recording and sending messages on cassette tape as an unorthodox method of communication by Pakistanis who migrated and settled in Scotland between 1960-1980. This four-part series features original tape recordings and oral history interviews with Scottish-Pakistani families who used cassette tapes in this way.   A Modus Arts production. Produced by Steve Urquhart. Narration by Tabassum Niamat. Funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. 

Imran Arif is a Social Scientist and was a community engagement officer for the Tape Letters oral history project. He carried out multiple interviews for the archive with the elders of the community in multiple languages. In this episode he reflects on his experience of the project and the importance of preserving the stories of previous generations.A Modus Arts Production. Audio Production and Sound Design by Oliver Sanders, Producer Leona Fensome, Executive Producer Lucia Scazzocchio, Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council of England.

The Tape Letters project shines light on the practice of recording and sending messages on cassette tape as an unorthodox method of communication by Pakistanis who migrated and settled in the UK between 1960-1980.Drawing directly both from first-hand interviews and from the informal and intimate conversations on the cassettes themselves, the project seeks to unearth, archive and re/present a portrait of this method of communication, as practised mainly by Potwari-speaking members of the British-Pakistani community, commenting on their experiences of migration and identity, the unorthodox use of cassette tape technology, and on the language used in the recordings.A Modus Arts Production. Audio Production and Sound Design by Oliver Sanders, Producer Leona Fensome, Executive Producer Lucia Scazzocchio, Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council of England.

Syma Tariq is a Sound Artist and Journalist focussing on history and politics. Her PhD was entitled “Partitioned listening: sonic methodology and the archive after 1947” and is part of the Tape Letters research team. In this episode she describes the Tape Letters archive as a community resource, produced in collaboration with its subject.A Modus Arts Production. Audio Production and Sound Design by Oliver Sanders, Producer Leona Fensome, Executive Producer Lucia Scazzocchio, Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council of England.

The poet Suna Afshan was commissioned by Modus Arts to produce a body of text in response to five cassettes selected from the Tape Letters archive held at the Bishopsgate Institute library. She adopted a poetry as a word-for-word translation approach, and the work is directly informed by the messages and languages on the cassettes, with the aim of reifying speech into ink.A Modus Arts Production. Audio Production and Sound Design by Oliver Sanders, Producer Leona Fensome, Executive Producer Lucia Scazzocchio, Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council of England.

This episode looks at the origins, characteristics, and generational evolution of Pothwari, an oral-only language with no written form.You’ll also delve deeper into some of the hierarchy and class differences that are associated with Pothwari when compared to Urdu or Punjabi. Including the dilemma of modernisation and preserving the ‘mother tongue’.“There were letters too” – hear about some of the struggles of letter writing for those who could not read or write in Urdu. Cassette tapes offered a more efficient and personal solution, while also providing an insight into the traditions of an oral culture.A Modus Arts Production. Audio Production and Sound Design by Oliver Sanders, Producer Leona Fensome, Executive Producer Lucia Scazzocchio, Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council of England.

Karamat Iqbal is an education professional based in Birmingham. He contributed an oral history and 7 cassette tapes to the Tape Letters Archive. In this episode he describes the discrimination Pakistani’s faced during the 1970s in Britain. A Modus Arts Production. Audio Production and Sound Design by Oliver Sanders, Producer Leona Fensome, Executive Producer Lucia Scazzocchio, Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council of England.

In this episode, interviewees of the Tape Letters project remember their experiences of leaving Pakistan and migrating to Britain, a country they had never seen before.Common jobs taken up by migrants were mainly in mills and factories, and often based in northern areas of the UK where there were greater opportunities at the time.You’ll also hear more about the reasons for the early migrations to the UK, which might not quite be what you expect.Individuals also recall the desire to share their new lives and surroundings with their families back in Pakistan through cassette tapes. Interestingly, tapes were also used by those in the UK to dream of and imagine their homeland, one they missed and hoped they might one day return to.A Modus Arts Production. Audio Production and Sound Design by Oliver Sanders, Producer Leona Fensome, Executive Producer Lucia Scazzocchio, Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council of England.

The award-winning photographer Maryam Wahid was commissioned to produce a photo series for the nationwide iteration of the Tape Letters project.  One of the photographs featuring Halima Jabeen, a Tape Letters archive contributor, was awarded the prestigious Portrait of Britain award by the British Journal of Photography. Maryam talks about the connection she has with Halima and the stories from the project. A Modus Arts Production. Audio Production and Sound Design by Oliver Sanders, Producer Leona Fensome, Executive Producer Lucia Scazzocchio, Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council of England.

This episode looks at families living apart being brought closer by messages on tape, with a special story of a soon-to-be-married couple, who got to know each other more deeply and fell in love entirely through sending cassette tapes to each other between Pakistan and the UK for over 5 years. Telephones were usually expensive and not private, which is why cassettes were their chosen method of communication. We also discuss the retention and loss of cassette tapes, and therefore stories, over the years as people either held onto tapes for sentimental or evidential reasons or threw them away as they simply looked to do some spring cleaning.A Modus Arts Production. Audio Production and Sound Design by Oliver Sanders, Producer Leona Fensome, Executive Producer Lucia Scazzocchio, Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council of England.

Michael Gallagher is a Social Researcher and Sound Artist who teaches at Manchester Metropolitan University. He became involved with Tape Letters after meeting Modus Arts producer Shazia Kahn. In this episode he talks about the significance of the cassette tape  from a media studies perspective. A Modus Arts Production. Audio Production and Sound Design by Oliver Sanders, Producer Leona Fensome, Executive Producer Lucia Scazzocchio, Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council of England.

This episode explores the re-appropriation of cassette technology from music media to communication media. A thin strip of spooled tape was vital in facilitating long-distance messages.We learn more about the power of the voice and the meaningful, affectionate family memories that were captured through the voice playing on a cassette tape. The recorded messages were often emotional and intimate, and it was common for tearful messages of grievances and condolences to also be included. Interviewees recall further childhood memories such as the mental preparations before recording messages, playing with cassette tape ribbon, and pretending to be TV presenters.Others remember being able to develop unexpected bonds with family members simply through listening to their voices on cassettes.A Modus Arts Production. Audio Production and Sound Design by Oliver Sanders, Producer Leona Fensome, Executive Producer Lucia Scazzocchio, Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council of England.

Rosa Schling, director of On the Record a company specialised on oral-history co-production, joined the Tape Letters project early on and was blown away by the richness and depth of personal stories recorded by families who had emigrated to the UK from Pakistan. She talks about the value of oral history recording. A Modus Arts Production. Audio Production and Sound Design by Oliver Sanders, Producer Leona Fensome, Executive Producer Lucia Scazzocchio, Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council of England.

Wajid Yaseen – Director of the Tape Letters project, talks about how his family moved from Pakistan to Ashton and how he first discovered his family's Tape Letters hoping to hear his own voice but instead discovering his father's recordings of Naats (the religious songs his father was invited o sing in people's homes) This eventually led to the birth of the Tape Letters project.A Modus Arts Production. Audio Production and Sound Design by Oliver Sanders, Producer Leona Fensome, Executive Producer Lucia Scazzocchio, Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council of England. 

The Tape Letters project shines a light on the practice of recording and sending messages on cassette tapes as a mode of communication by Pakistanis who migrated and settled in theUK between 1960-1980. In this six-part documentary series, listen to first-hand accounts of these migration stories through original cassette tape recordings, interviews with their Britain-born families and commentary by Tape Letters founder and director, Wajid Yaseen.Through hearing from the lived experiences of Pakistani migrants when they first settled in the UK, the series also explores key themes associated with these migration stories such as language (primarily Pothwari), communication methods, intergenerational relationships and identities, divided families and more.A Modus Arts Production. Audio Production and Sound Design by Oliver Sanders, Producer Leona Fensome, Executive Producer Lucia Scazzocchio, Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council of England