BelFEST
This year was the first time I had been in Belfast for BelFEST and I made the most of it, I saw around 15 acts. It was odd that I thought a lot of the solo acts stole the show - Kidd Dynamo on his own, Robyn Shiels and Barry Peak in particular. One negative side to the whole thing is that the accompanying CD hasn't made into the shops yet and the festival is over. It's quite ironic that when I lived in London people had no trouble getting me copies!

It's nearly end-of-year round-up time, although I always refuse to publish mine until January in case I discover something too late to include. We're running a reader's poll as opposed to a simple albums list like last year, the details are on the message board now. Closing date 31 December.