More Music organise event to mark 20 year cockling tragedy anniversary

Lancaster Guardian

Pete Moser previously of More Music in Morecambe speaks about the event More Music have organised for the 20 year cockling anniversary and also his thoughts about the tragedy 20 years on.

Transcript

00:00 "Sigh of the Sea" is an event on February 4th on the West End beach just close to the Battery.

00:06 And we're doing two parts, one that's outside when we're going to be on the beach with a bonfire,

00:10 lanterns, a bonfire in the shape of a boat, lanterns, braises, cup of tea and some music.

00:15 And we'll be asking people to write on the lanterns and to send wishes out to sea and as

00:21 the tide comes in it won't quite reach the bonfire but we'll have that sense of fire and water.

00:27 And then after that we're going into the building, into Moor Music's building,

00:31 for a couple of hours of music and food and chat and conversations when we can reflect on

00:37 the lives of those 23 people. Ten years ago we marked it on the main beach in Morecambe.

00:42 We had quite a big event, we had a lot of people. This is 20 years on, it's really important to

00:49 think about the issues again and to think about those people. Ten years from now I like to think

00:54 that it's something that will carry on going. You can't, when you have a tragedy like this

00:59 that highlights issues of slavery, of migration, economic migration, of people

01:06 travelling around the world, it's really important to mark those and to think about why it happens

01:11 and to try and say this should not be happening or how can we make sure it doesn't happen again.

01:15 Those cocklers were out, being taken out by a gang master who really didn't know what he was doing.

01:20 And just the thought of the terror of those people as the tide was coming in, the sand was sucking

01:26 them down, just horrendous. But we also knew that something like this could have happened because

01:32 for months before that there'd been hundreds of cocklers out there digging out in the sand,

01:38 some of them going really far out into the bay. And you know, who knows what they knew, who knew,

01:43 you know, who was guiding them, who was actually telling them to go there. And so it was a terrible,

01:49 it was a horrendous night and it took, you know, it took the town by surprise really. I mean we

01:56 knew that this was happening, we knew that people were living here and had come up from Liverpool,

02:00 come from all over the country to live here and to work in the bay. But we didn't know that this

02:05 was going to happen and it marked Morecambe for many years and still as a place where a tragedy,

02:10 a huge industrial tragedy had taken place. It's important to honour the memory of those people

02:15 who died in Morecambe Bay. It's important to remember them and to not forget their lives,

02:21 to think about how we can change the society we live in so that this doesn't happen again,

02:27 to always remember and build bridges between people from other cultures. And I think by doing

02:37 this event we'll bring people together from many different places, some of whom, I think some of

02:41 the young people who come, weren't alive 20 years ago, but we'll ask them to think about that event

02:48 and ask them to think about those people, to think about their families and to remember them

02:54 with sadness but also with some sort of celebration of their lives.

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