They may look old-fashioned now, but cassette tapes once carried voices, love, and family news thousands of miles across the globe, and Bradford’s British Pakistani community is celebrating this long-lost connection with a special new exhibition.
The exhibition – ‘Tape Letters’, opened on 22nd May at Bradford 2025’s Loading Bay Gallery in Duke Street, and shines a spotlight on a remarkable way families kept in touch before the internet or cheap phone calls.
Between the 1960s and ’80s, many British Pakistanis sent audio cassette tapes filled with personal messages back home – a heartfelt, intimate lifeline bridging two worlds.
Curated especially for Bradford 2025, the show tells the stories of 12 local families through photographs, quotes, and the very tapes themselves. From romantic love notes to everyday family updates, the exhibition reveals how these humble cassettes captured emotions and moments that letters or calls simply couldn’t.
“We’d sit around the tape recorder like it was breaking news,” recalls Bradford’s Asaf Hussain.
“My mum wanted every detail – who was sick, who was visiting. For us kids, it was just hearing Dad’s voice. It was like he was right there with us.”
For many, sending tape letters was not only practical, but cheaper than international calls, and a way to speak freely. Bradford’s Asma Mirza remembers the shy beginnings of a romance through secret cassette exchanges.
“There was no cordless phone, and I couldn’t even say hello in front of my family. So Asim sent me a tape and told me, ‘Tell me what’s in your heart.’ I kept those tapes locked away like precious treasures.”
The project was dreamed up by Modus Arts, who have been uncovering this hidden audio archive since 2018. Director Wajid Yaseen discovered his own family’s cassette history and soon found hundreds of others across the UK sharing similar stories.
“It’s like sonic archaeology – digging through memory, migration, culture, and the power of human connection,” says Wajid. “It shows how deeply people want to communicate, no matter where they are in the world.”
Shanaz Gulzar, Creative Director of Bradford 2025, added: “I remember sitting with my family, recording messages to relatives I’d never met. Sometimes the tapes came back mixed with Culture Club songs – cultural fusion before we knew it!”
Running until 15 June, Tape Letters invites visitors to tune in, listen, and celebrate a truly unique chapter in Bradford’s rich cultural history – when voices on cassette kept families close, across continents and decades.
