Michael Pipe bought a box of old eight-track tapes mostly for the case they came in.

The Northamptonshire resident had recently bought a vintage eight-track player on eBay and was amassing a collection of cartridges to go with it. He wanted something authentic to put them in.

The case was in good condition and contained 20 to 30 eight-tracks, which the seller thought were blank.

“You can buy boxes of eight-tracks in England for really cheap, because not many people have a player any more,” he explained. “I was just going to throw them in the bin.”

Before doing so, he carefully went through them. The first couple snapped as they began to play, while others were empty.

“Then one of them jumped into life,” Mr Pipe said.

He found himself listening to a radio programme. From the accents he could tell it was recorded outside of England but was not immediately sure where.

“You cannot stop and start in the middle of eight-tracks,” he said. “You just have to listen to them all the way through.”

Fearing the tapes would not survive replays, he took notes. Advertisers such as Gorham’s and the location of Hamilton were mentioned several times. He also heard ZBM1 mentioned.

There were 17 90-minute tapes in the box. Not all of them were full.

With a little research he figured out that the eight-tracks in his box were made in Bermuda in the Seventies and early Eighties.

“Before listening to the tapes I had never given the island of Bermuda a second thought,” he said.

Now he was intrigued.

Some of the recordings were of the Codfish Breakfast Show made by a DJ called Don Johann. A frequent guest on the programme was the late musician Stan “Lord Necktie” Seymour.

“I really don’t like to talk too much about myself,” Mr Seymour told Mr Johann all those years ago. “I am just another guy who strums a guitar and sings a song. I have been singing for a little while. I would prefer that you don’t ask how long.”

Mr Seymour explained that his Calypso title “Lord Necktie”, was derived from a Calypso competition he won years before.

“I am still singing along and singing my song,” he said. “People will be singing a lot of Lord Necktie.”

In the 1960s Mr Seymour had a breakout hit with Diddly Bops and the Gooseneck Handlebars, a calypso tribute to the mobylettes common on the roads at that time.

He died in 2021.

Mr Pipe also found a radio documentary in the box called The Beatles and John Lennon.

“I don’t think John Lennon was in the studio but he was recorded talking about his upcoming album, Double Fantasy,” Mr Pipe said.

That was exciting for Mr Pipe, because he is a big Beatles fan, having grown up in their heyday.

He thought the documentary would have been made some time between John Lennon’s time in Bermuda in the summer of 1980 and his assassination in December of that year. Double Fantasy was released a month or so before his death.

“His death is never mentioned,” he said.

Mr Pipe runs a music venue called the Entshed and describes himself as a “mad, passionate” music lover.

“There are very few styles of music I cannot listen to, although I have particular preferences for certain singers and songwriters, such as Cat Stevens and the Beatles. I could find some good in almost any style of music.”

Collecting music led naturally into gathering music memorabilia.

“I also have a lot of hi-fi and electrical equipment,” Mr Pipe said. “Music has changed so much in how it is listened to. Music goes back to so many other formats. The format stuck in my head is vinyl. It keeps coming back. I have cassettes, CDs, music videos and LPs. Eight-track eluded me. It was quite a niche market that did not particularly take off in the UK.”

Mr Pipe thought it was unusual that this Bermuda radio treasure trove was recorded on eight-track.

Eight-tracks went on the market in the Sixties reaching their peak in popularity in 1978.

“Most eight-track players did not come with a recording feature,” he said.

They were never that popular in England, he said.

“A few people had eight-track players in their cars, but that was considered very flash,” Mr Pipe explained. “On the domestic side of things, I did not know of anyone who had one in their home. There were many British bands who made eight-track recordings, but they were mainly for an American audience.”

He was also puzzled by how the collection of recordings ended up in England.

“I thought maybe someone was picking up radio waves from Bermuda in England and recording them,” he said. “I consulted a technical friend of mine and he said that would not have been possible. Most radio stations, other than the BBC World Service did not have a wide signal range at that time, so the recording had to be made in Bermuda. And these shows were definitely for the Bermuda community.”

Mr Pipe has a new-found interest in Bermuda music and has started scouring the web for records made by Mr Seymour.

“Listening to the tapes, I felt inspired and honoured,” he said. “I was listening to something that had not been heard for maybe 50 years.

He would love to hear from people on the island who remember the shows, or know why the tapes were made.

Mr Pipe would like to know more about the personalties and music featured on them.

“Mr Seymour must have young family members who have never even heard these recordings,” he said.

• To contact Michael Pipe, e-mail michaelwpipe@gmail.com