Thomas Allan

Thomas Allan (25 November 1832 8 April 1894) was an English collector of songs and a music publisher from Newcastle upon Tyne who played a major part in the recording of the music of the day. Career In 1858, he joined his brother Ralph's stationery business. Soon afterwards, he opened his own shop selling papers and books. The publication Tyneside Songs In 1862, he published his first book, Tyneside Songs. The first edition was very small and covered mainly songs of Edward "Ned" Corvan and George "Geordie" Ridley. Over the years he developed the book, adding to it, until eventually it became an extremely large volume with almost 600 pages (590?). The title was changed to Allan's Tyneside Songs, and the contents increased to cover not just the songs but details and histories of them, their writers and singers. As it developed, the theme changed from one of solely popular songs to encompass many older traditional songs, aiming to spread the popularity of the book to a wider audience. It is now an invaluable source of historical reference providing wealth of information.