What’s the greatest album of all time by a northern Irish act?

This question was posed by David O’Reilly also known as Rigsy from BBC NI’s Across the Line.  He’s doing a poll for the Daily Mirror and Belfast Live and it will be interesting to see who makes the list.

Using the hashtag #NIALBUMS you can nominate up to three albums for inclusion and they don’t need to be in order.

My three were Therapy? – Troublegum, Ash – 1977 and Stiff Little Fingers – Inflammable Material.

Both Therapy? and Ash had a big impact on me in the early 1990s and I was too young to appreciate Stiff Little Fingers at the time as I got older I started to listen to them a bit more.

But why stop at three? You could be all day trying to do a top 10, so I thought I’d give it a go with my very own top 10 NI albums.  Obviously the three above are going to be there so who will make it for the other seven?

My all-time NI top 10

1. Therapy? – Troublegum (1994)
2. Ash – 1977 (1996)
3. Stiff Little Fingers – Inflammable Material (1979)
4. The Undertones – The Undertones (1979)
5. Jetplane Landing – Zero for Conduct (2002)
6. And So I Watch You From Afar – And So I Watch You From Afar (2009)
7. Fighting with Wire – Man vs. Monster (2008)
8. La Faro – La Faro (2010)
9. The Wood Burning Savages – Stability (2018)
10. Scheer – Infliction (1996)

That concludes my top 10. A few bands missed out like Joyrider whose excellent Be Special album from 1996 was great.

• Albums