So it's here - that time of year when we put together a few lists. I've just completed my top twenty Irish albums of the year for AU Magazine's poll (still time to vote yourself - email a list to chris@iheartau.com before 5pm today - Monday) and will now consider the albums stuck in my car stereo or the singles I've had soundtrack dinner making in the kitchen (no idea why I always round up my favourite new songs any time I make a feed, but there you go) during the past twelve months.

Most important of all, however, is the crucial ATL Local Acts of the Year list. This will require the most thought and reflection.

Every year, myself and the ATL production team (Paul, Amy and Warren) join ATL contributers (William, Orla et all), friends of ATL (Joe Lindsay, Donna Legge, Stuart Bailie) and a few other people associated with the show to pick our favourite Northern Irish acts of the year. As long as they've performed live and presented new music in the previous twelve months, they can be included. The list is always a subject of much debate on various forums and blogs, so we take it pretty serious.

This is how it ended up looking last December.

But who'll win this year? Well, if I was presenting odds (I shouldn't really, I'm terrible at maths, yet here I am) and y'all were able to bet on the outcome (you're not), this is the blog for you. Ahem.

DISCLAIMER: Truth is, I have no idea what to expect from this year's chart. With at least a dozen people voting, each with different taste and most of whom are rarely anywhere near the office, it's pretty much impossible to make a call. Needless to say, this is just a bit of fun...

So last year's winners And So I Watch You From Afar are my hot favourites. Incredible live shows, general good feeling off the back of 'Solidarity' and a mere handful of tracks was enough last year, but this time around you can add a debut album, a headline slot at Glasgowbury and a near sell-out Mandela Hall show. For a start.

Evens.

You should of course never write off '07 and '08 winners La Faro. A line-up change coupled with some increasingly aggressive (in a good way) live shows mean 2009 has been another good year for the lads - but without that many new recordings they're slight outsiders at 4/1.

Similarly Cashier No. 9 and Panama Kings have increased both fanbase and reputation - helped by memorable headline shows at the Empire and Mandela Hall respectively. Lets say 6/1 and 5/1 - though next year they could well be joint favourites.

What of General Fiasco? Well, it's been a year of development and memorable festival appearances for the youngest band in last year's top ten. Second favorites for me at 5/2. Again, with an album under their belts, next year they could well top the chart. Similarly Two Door Cinema Club, who've also received heavy rotation on ATL, are a good bet at 3/1, ahead of that debut album.

As for acts from last year's top twenty definitely not going to win - well, The Lowly Knights, The Jane Bradfords, and Kowalski should all be at 30/1ish (if not higher) with each act having laid very low.

Again - next year.

The Answer and In Case of Fire will, of course, feature highly, with both unleashing hugely impressive albums earlier this year. But, as the type of acts liable to top one person's chart and not feature at all on the next person's - they're slight outsiders, at 6/1. I think a lack of consistent points across the board may mean they'll have to make do with a top five finish.

Cutaways are worth an each-way bet at 8/1 - yet another act who've impressed with an album and some memorable shows, while relatively niche acts like The Japanese Popstars and Space Dimension Controller shouldn't expect to top the chart, but could do some damage to the top ten. The former are at 11/1 while the latter is at a slightly healthier 9/1 (simply because SDC is a 19 year-old bloke we'd barely heard of this time last year).

One act who just might break ASIWYFA's stranglehold on the top spot are a band who enjoy a similar respect from and friendship with pretty much the entire music scene in this country. They've improved with every gig and started to live up to their own hype while recording arguably the biggest NI anthem of 2009.

They're my real tip, at 7/2. 

A Plastic Rose - could this be your year?

(The ATL polls for 2009 will be published in the middle of December.)

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Andrew (Griswold) Johnston is somewhat of a legend in Northern Irish music. As part of the Dangerfields he's gone through 40 band members, played over 800 gigs and some of the biggest dives around Europe. There's been punch ups, a van crash, arrests, sleeping rough, muggings by strippers, and of course, full on rock 'n' roll shows.

And it all started in 1989 when he started a band that was to sound like "Napalm Death meets Christian Death [LA Deathrock band]". I have no idea if 'Adream' managed this, but we can find out tonight. After twenty years of living the DIY rock life, Andrew is celebrating by resurrecting 'Adream' and other previous outing 'Griswold' for one night of scuzzy rock. In the midst of crazy amounts of rehearsals for tonight's show, Andrew found the time to tell us more about the past, present and future.

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So twenty years gigging warehouses, sweaty watering holes, and lately slums around Europe! How do you keep going?
I'm too stubborn to quit! I know I'm getting older and I can make more money doing other things, but I just love the thrill of being onstage - the noise of the drums and the hum of the amps. I love the challenge of winning over audiences and travelling from town to town. I'm writing a book now, too, so even when bad ['stuff'] happens it's just more material for the book!

What have been the major changes for you in the last 20 years?
It doesn't feel like 20 years, and then sometimes it feels like a lifetime. The major changes for me personally are that I quit drinking, which was the best move I ever made, and that I went back to tech and got a qualification. Musically, my goal is still the same - to make the Motörhead album Motörhead never made!

How hard was it to get the guys back to play as Adream and Griswold?
Griswold was easy enough to sort out. Leif, the singer and guitarist, now works as a guitar tech for Leonard Cohen, but he's on a break from the world tour right now. I had jammed with him a few times last year, so he was up for taking it a step further and playing a few Griswold songs. Ian, the bassist, has played with me in the Dangerfields on and off, so he was easy to convince, too.

Adream was a bit more of a challenge. Marc, the singer and guitarist, was well up for it, but the other two ummed and ahhed for ages, then finally let us down last week. Luckily, Jamie from the Dangerfields has stepped in to play bass, so we're all set to go!

Is there any gig from Adream or Griswold that holds legendary status in your mind now?
The first Adream gig is important to me, because it was my first ever gig, but musically it was pretty awful. The only remotely notable gig we played was supporting Therapy? in the Errigle Inn before they were famous. I remember Andy let Marc borrow all his pedals, and Michael's brother was filling in for Fyfe on drums.

Griswold played a bunch of shows with Ash on the Nu-Clear Sounds tour, which was fun, but we were too drunk to take advantage of the opportunity. I remember drinking a half-bottle of whiskey onstage at the London Forum and verbally abusing the crowd, much to Ash's management's disgust.

There have been loads of stories told from the Dangerfields' tours. What's been the most down and out point so far?
It's got to be sleeping rough in the Outer Hebrides in the middle of winter, and waking up with our sleeping bags covered in seagull [excrement]. Then there was the time we got infested with ticks in a wagon park in Germany...

And surely there's been a hint of luxury at some point??
When we supported Stiff Little Fingers in Glasgow, the drummer in the opening band was a night porter at a Premier Travel Inn, so he sorted us out with a free hotel room for the night - the first and only time we have slept in a hotel in our entire 800-gig history. But it wasn't that luxurious, because there were six of us in a double room and we had to get up at 5am to get to the next gig...

You've said you've gotta be an "absolute lunatic" to be in The Dangerfields. Does that include 41 members that couldn't keep up the lunacy?
I can't think of a single "normal" person who has been in the band. "Normal" people don't play rock 'n' roll.

Who lasted the least amount of time and who have you corrupted?
There was a guy who sang for one practice in the very early days, whose name I never even knew. Usually, people are already corrupted by the time they get to us. We just give them the opportunity to get it out of their systems.

If you could pick anybody to play with (forever) in a line up, who would it be?
I wouldn't want to be stuck with anyone forever, but me, Lemmy and Joan Jett would be worth a tour or two.

You've calmed down during the years. But is there something that triggers off in your head that turns you into Griswold once you step foot on stage?
Once the hat and the shades go on, something takes over. I couldn't go onstage as 'Andrew Johnston'. I'm a shy [insert preferred expletive] in real life. I hate being the centre of attention. 'Andrew Griswold' is a different animal entirely.

What is it about the DIY gorilla style tours that you love so much?
I love roaring into town, [playing very loud rock music into] people's ears and pillaging their pockets for t-shirt money. It's just a lifestyle that appeals to me - travelling from town to town, playing music and meeting strange new people. Belfast is a great place, but I like to get out there and see the world.

Have I heard right that you've started a book?
Yes. It will be a cross between Anvil, The Dirt and a Beano annual.

So twenty years gigging, over 800 gigs with the Dangerfields... What about the next twenty? Do you think you will ever be ever to stop?
I want to play at least as many gigs as the Ramones did, so you're stuck with us for a good while yet, baby.

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FREE DANGERFIELDS TRACK: Gimme Gimme Rock 'n' Roll

To download the free track above, right click on the link and choose 'Save Target As' (if you're using a Mac it's Ctrl+click).

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Anybody who was at the Ulster Hall on Halloween night would have witnessed one storming set via one of Northern Ireland's finest bands. After taking a while off to live life, get married and write more tunes, Six Star Hotel are back with a new album titled Tides And Tides, out on 7th December 2009. So we caught up with guitarist Matt Minford for a little chat about all things Six Star Hotel.

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12:27 Amy: hey matt!

12:27 Matt: hey amy, how goes it?

12:28 Amy: Good! yourself?

12:28 Matt: yeah, no complaints. currently proof reading the album on a pretty wet morning.

12:28 Amy: Ah... in the comfort of home?

12:29 Matt: no home today, literally chilling in the office with a substandard blowheater for company!

12:29 Amy: haha... you guys must be used to such comforts after the tours ye have done!

12:30 Matt: yeah, i reckon that's relative comfort!

12:30 Amy: Its been a while since we're heard from you all. What's been happening??

12:31 Matt: eh, i suppose working on this album has been a bit all-consuming for the past twelve months, so we haven't been on the road at all really. I also got married in june last year, and dave did the same in october last year, so it was good timing to lie low and work on new stuff.

12:32 Amy: Has that meant you guys are based in different cities now?

12:33 Matt: yeah - well at the same point last year, tim and neil (guitar and drums) both moved to london. Dave and I are based in belfast. It's actually not too difficult, it's allowed us all to enjoy our own lives for a while, instead of living in each others' pockets in a van! it also means that when we do play live, or work together in the studio, it's a lot more enjoyable and productive.

12:33 Amy: Have you been sending pigeons back and forth with ideas?

12:34 Matt: wow, yeah pigeons would probably be more reliable than snail mail at the minute i suppose. Most of the album was recorded by singer/guitarist dave on his protools rig - from original demos we emailed back and forth to learn songs, right up to the majority of the takes on the final album.

12:35 Amy: cool. So you guys have been the same line up for years. Is there the natural leader at this stage? the tour goof? the loon?

12:37 Matt: yeah, we've been same lineup since day one, which i think was around january 2001. we've kind of slipped into natural roles for different things - like neil leads up everything visual, dave takes care of recording and song development, timmy does promo, and i take care of business. obviously it's taken a lot of time for those roles to actually settle and become natural - there were times in years gone by where there was a lot of crossover and there's a little friction when that happens! but it also means we're pretty patient with each other. which you can't be in a band without.

12:38 Amy: ha. I can imagine spending that much time with anyone can be a challenge!

12:38 Matt: definitely! but well worth it.

12:39 Amy: You've just played the ulster hall with General Fiasco... how'd you enjoy it?

12:41 Matt: the general fiasco show was great. a lot of the time we put on our own shows and run most aspects of them, so it's really good to just turn up and play - everything else is taken care of by other people. Aside from that, it's a bit of a privilege to be able to play to such a big crowd on home turf.

12:42 Amy: I went home chanting Go! Go! Indigo!

12:42 Matt: job well done then!

12:43 Amy: great tune! On the new album yes?

12:44 Matt: yes indeed - first track on said album.

12:44 Amy: excellent. For those of us yet to hear it then - what are we to expect compared to previous Six Star outings?

12:45 Matt: hmm. probably a more refined and punchier sixstar. better tunes, better album.

12:46 Amy: so when will we see you guys next?

12:47 Matt: well, we're just about to confirm a show in belfast on friday 4th december to coincide with the album release on 7th december. instead of doing one launch party, we decided it'd be more fun to do three - one in belfast, one in london and the other in glasgow all over that weekend.

12:48 Amy: haha - class. you guys surely like to do it proper! and plans to tour again then?

12:48 Matt: well, we do give it a go...we're about to book a tour for february/march to take in ni/uk/roi, so hopefully that'll be announced just after Christmas.

12:49 Amy:  Well Matt... we've well and truly gone over our time :/

12:49 Matt: this is true, it's been a bit of a lengthy but enjoyable 15 minutes

12:49 Amy: Haha - like the timing of a country bus

12:50 Amy: but thanks a million!. Kid go Get It is brilliant and Go! Go! Indigo so I cant wait to get a copy of the album!

12:50 Matt: class. really looking forward to actually just getting it released. nice one - thanks and cheerio! til next time...

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Get Six Star Hotel's new single 'Kid Go Get It' as a free download here

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