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In Memory Alan ‘Barney’ Coulson 7th Oct 1938 to 11th Feb 2020 Northumberland and the Borders lost one of its greatest accordionists with the passing of Alan Coulson, a quiet and modest man of great talent.
A
lan Coulson, or ‘Barney’ as he was affectionately called, was brought up at Blaxter, on the Ottercops in the wild and very beautiful high fell land of Northumberland close to the Scottish Border. His father, an accomplished fiddler, was a quarryman there and music abounded in the family home. He married Helen Scott at Rochester in 1965 and settled at The Folly, Elsdon, near Otterburn. There they brought up daughter Sharon, born in 1966, and son Shaun, born in 1968. In 1989 the family moved to Rochester. Alan worked for many years for the MOD at Otterburn, overseeing the building of track roads for tanks and military vehicles in some of the wildest country you could possibly imagine. All his close relatives enjoyed Scottish/traditional music and dancing and the ‘Scott clan’ of Ian, Vera, Jim and Kathy, and Gordon and Mina Wright, along with his wife, Helen, were often at dances where Alan either played or attended as a dancer. They also attended the Shetland Accordion and Fiddle Festival. Alan was a mainly self-taught accordionist, but did take a few lessons in Newcastle. However, being surrounded by many great traditional musicians he had a desire to become a top accordionist. His first experience of playing regularly in a band was in the 1950s and 1960s with Mac Rogerson (buttonbox), Ian Mills (fiddle), Margaret Scott (piano) and Bert MacKintosh (drums). Around 1969 he went on to join the Arcadians Band with Billy Murray of Rothbury (fiddle), Eddie Wright (piano) and Billy Murray Junior (drums). Ca. 1970 Alan formed The Border Country
Helen & Alan
Dance Band with Geoff Purvis (The Border Fiddler) and Robin Wilson (drums). The band was loved throughout the region and further afield. In 1977 and 1978 respectively they made two LPs for Fellside Records under the title of The Border Country Dance Band featuring The Border Fiddler. The recordings were a massive success. The band played for literally hundreds of dances and functions, travelling far and wide from their border home. It was also at this time that the band appeared regularly at 7pm after the news on Border Television, often before going to play at a dance. The band was wound up in approximately 1982. Alan still played for many years, and recorded on occasions for Take the Floor with The Danelaw Scottish Dance Band. During the 1990s Alan also went on to play with Marian Anderson and her Scottish Dance Band, and in his later years with Gordon Brown of Kelso. Until he was no longer able to travel, he loved going to the Shetland Accordion and Fiddle Festival and made many good friends there. It remained the highlight of his year into the last decade of his life. In the last few years he played for the local Rochester dance class in his village and enjoyed tunes at home with the well-known accordionist Donald Ridley, who wrote him a lovely polka tune now printed in Donald’s books. He kept a most beautiful garden right up to the end of his life. Special memories of Alan will always be of occasions like the fantastic winter nights, the happy dancers and Alan leading his band to the great joy of all in The Cuddystone Hall, College
