Morecambe's pioneering teenagers remember when there were strict rules on what type of music could be played on Sundays

Memories of music, coffee bars and dancing from years gone by came flooding back to people attending Jukebox Journeys.

It was the first in a series of events taking place on Lancashire’s seaside coast this year during Jukebox: The Teenage Revolution, a celebration of the music and teenage culture of Britain in the Fifties and Sixties.

“Inspired by memorabilia from the Fifties and Sixties, it was a joy to see so many happy faces on people recounting stories and experiences from the ‘golden age’ of the jukebox on the Lancashire coast,” said George Harris, co-founder of Mirador who ran the event.

Among those participating was Phil Baker who started work in 1967 at the Ditchburn Equipment Company in Blackpool which made some of the first British jukeboxes.

Mirador, a Lancaster-based arts and heritage charity, and Lancaster University Library are working in partnership on the project which is supported with a £50,904 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players.

Morecambe’s Jukebox Journey was hosted by Lewis’s café and included a talk by Adrian Horn, author of Juke Box Britain, who lives in Bentham.

One extract from the book highlights a challenge to Sunday jukebox playing in a 1951 Morecambe licence application where magistrates were concerned that the public relaying of music, if played at all, should not be of ‘a frivolous nature’ such as be-bop, dance and American-style music.

Conditions which applied to Sunday musical licences were that the music should be of ‘a high order suitable for the Sabbath’ and of a light orchestral type and not ‘dance music of a broadly humorous nature’.

Famous band leader and impresario, Jack Hylton, played an important role in bringing the jukebox to the UK and his archive is held at Lancaster University.

Lancaster University students will record memories of the era from people now in their seventies and eighties during the inter-generational part of the project.

“I am delighted that the library is working with Mirador to capture the voices and memories of a generation that carved out so much that we consider vital to popular culture,” said Andrew Barker, Lancaster University’s director of library services and learning development.

If you have memories of being a teenager in the Fifties and Sixties or photographs from that era, please contact Mirador at http://miradorarts.co.uk/get-in-touch