Vintage Blackpool Illuminations

[@illhitu4034]

I feel a deep despair watching this , so much magic from my childhood gone and replaced with boring dimly lit ones now

[@spidermanfan1387]

Loved seeing all vintage lights makes me happy 😊

[@paulwylds8350]

great video i miss those good old lights of blackpool.....its a real shame someone from blackpool council cant see this and have a good hard think about how crap the lights are now a days compared to those .....back when blackpool illuminations was worth going to see ...they could make them great again with a little inspiration from the old lights .....i loved the fighting flying sarcers ...and the very start of the video where the lights were mainly gold n silver all the way down ..what a sight

[@davidtanycoed]

Well said - totally agree with you

[@ChrisHewitt16]

It is a shame the lights aren’t like this now. I do a bit of work for the lights throughout the year, the things the illuminations team could do if they had the cash. The lights get £2 million a year to run the display, that goes on maintenance, running costs, new features etc. The problem is £2 million went much further 30 years ago than it does now 😔

[@davidtanycoed]

@@ChrisHewitt16 That's shocking! - I can imagine 2 million barely covers anything. It should be given some kind of national heritage and arts financial protection status. The amount of money the arts receive on top of their revenue, baring in mind most theatres are in the wealthy areas of London, there should be some kind of national protection for what is a very unique tourist entertainment attraction that does not exist anywhere else in the world. I imagine it boils down to lazy local authority executives who do very little but sit on their arses making excuses whilst waiting for their pension

[@ChrisHewitt16]

David Pearson your absolutely right. I feel the thinking is, if the lights can still function as they are then there’s no need to give them more money. Then you have the issue of ‘can we justify giving more money to the lights when we need to give money for local health care, schools, highway maintenance etc’. As for the displays themselves, they used to have 45 staff who worked on the lights, due to redundancies they are down to 13. That’s why half the lights stay up each year because they don’t have the time or money to take them all down. And if they did have the money for new displays they couldn’t build them because there isn’t enough staff to do it. That’s why anything new is very small compared to new features back in the day. It’s just a vicious circle. It makes me cross because the workers are such a lovely bunch of people and they work very hard.

[@pwilson3698]

I miss them too - happy childhood memories - this video took me back. Who would really travel to see this pathetic spectacle. Total shame.

[@joannecraddock1246]

Lovely video so much enjoyable lights back then to what they are today this was wjat blackpool illuminations was to me growing up much more fun and a lot pretty then then what they are now bit disappointed fab video child memory

[@Spindler2007]

I miss all these illuminations. I wish they would bring back illuminations like this as it would be so much better than it is now.

[@tornadotaz9678]

Thank you so much for uploading this video as it has rekindled my childhood memories of going to this iconic seaside town. I remember too, on one visit the tower projected lazers on the floor. When I went there the lazers were of Kermit and Miss Piggy from The Muppet Show. Can you tell me if the green lights on this awesome video were in fact lazers shooting from the tower? A big thank you again for uploading this.

[@TheConsettonian1987]

I wish those days were back

[@iamtheeggman1986]

Me too

[@Nick-cy2tn]

Major nostalgia hit seeing these. We used to hang out the car sunroof driving along through the lights as kids

[@iamtheeggman1986]

The good old days ❤️

[@pwilson3698]

Thank you for posting.

[@iamtheeggman1986]

Brings back so many memories

[@adamberrisford7955]

In 1993 I switched the blackpool illuminations on with status quo

[@AB-sg5wn]

And in 1994 I switched the Blackpool illuminations on with Adam Berrisford

[@tld7195]

the Corrie ones are iconic!!

[@JFrizey]

I loved the old style incandescent illuminations rather than the LED stuff. I feel they have all been toned down in recent years, less advertising and cost cutting I guess

[@aspenl.1104]

AHH literally speaking about Blackpool illuminations and this is exactly the same as the one I had as a kid! Thanks for postin!

[@number6ix929]

Mesmerizing video Thanks for posting!

[@karencurtis2697]

Been going to Blackpool since 1972 . Magical memories xox Gosh the big displays at the side of the golden mile . Riding on the rocket tram and walking the length back to the b&q near the fair. My Mom would take us every year on the coach then as we got older we would take her for mid week 4 day breaks , oh my gosh I forgot about the boat tram , I'm crying the rocket tram just went past

[@iamtheeggman1986]

❤️

[@mousecharger]

Wow this takes me back absolutely love it and the music thank you for sharing

[@lordytar]

oh wow this takes me back to being a kid. always remember being obsessed with the white light that went round the top of the tower haha

[@pwilson3698]

This is how brilliant the lights used to be - for various reasons the lights nowadays are rubbish compared with this. How sad.

[@peterstean2138]

I used to work at ICL back in the 80s - they were the biggest IT firm in the UK at time, factories and offices all over the UK. Today you can find one of their mainframes and some dumb terminals in the National Museum of Computing but that's about it.

[@1_Strawberry]

If only they put this much effort in now!! Definitely would get more people going to have a look I mean you have nostalgic people / I'm only young and I think this is way cooler then what we have nowadays and some people who might just have this as a preference I mean my younger sibling adoors Lego this would've made blackpool so cool for him!

[@masterknife8423]

I recognise quite a few of these mainly the ones in the second half of the video

[@Littlealan1959]

the cost replace old illuminations when get worn out repair them for following year . they not as they were at least kept them going all these years not stopped them

[@booth2710]

Proving they were far far better years gone by ... hardly surprising they do'n;t pull the crowds like they used to

[@DisneyMarkUK]

Oh I loved this video, thank you for sharing it

[@willowvc1910]

Love these xx 💞

[@davidpendry7731]

Sadly today’s illuminations are just a shadow of the past😢 The globes were so much brighter and animated

[@Steampunksaly]

This is the first time I’ve seen them without the horizontal rain

[@betsy.mp4]

Hi Ash, is this from the promotional video for the 2001 Illuminations? I've been looking for a copy as I used to watch it with my nan all the time as a child :) The video I'm looking for includes footage of Blackpool attractions (certainly Stanley Park), clips from the carnival, footage from the switch-on (included Steps and Roxette) and videos like this of the illuminations themselves! If you (or anyone else here!) knows where I could track it down, that would be great!

[@joannerussell7852]

I love the soundtrack you have added, is it available to purchase anywhere?

[@RealMightyC]

He didn’t add the sound track This is a DVD video he’s just uploaded it you can buy the DVD from eBay or Amazon it’s called 100 years of Blackpool illuminations

[@leebarrett7860]

Iv just checked on Amazon it looks like it’s completely out of stock the DVD and May not return

[@leebarrett7860]

It’s extremely sad there not like this now I would blame the greedy politicians in the council for Blackpools mess nowadays

[@pixusphotographic]

I think the character and subtlety of the light were much better in the earlier days not like the too harsh rubbish they are throwing up these days. We used to make special trips to Blackpool just to see the illuminations, but not these days. Another KZbin channel said "Its good to see that they are making changes as the older people are dying and younger people want change". Its the older people who spent their hard earned cash for their one a year holiday. Whereas the younger people will be knackered once they have spent their benefit money on booze and drugs.

[@chrismccanb1452]

They had a lot bigger budget than and alot more man power.

[@axeld1545]

Could you show us the names of every song

[@joannerussell7852]

1.22 When you're smiling, 2.35 Locomotion, 3.51 Thats livin' alright, 5.39 Atmosphere, 6.00 Amarillo, 7.16 I only want to be with you, 8.45 Will you still love me tomorrow, 10.48 Fame, 14.14 Young ones. There are a few I don't know but I hope this helps

[@tootsy1100]

Axel just get any tower ballroom organ music cd

[@joannemurphy661]

It’s a shame most of the the lights now are white what a disappointment they were last year I took my grandson he wasn’t impressed and that’s a shame I left Blackpool as a child in the 70s even into the 80s overjoyed at the colours and movements I had seen