Now then, as I was saying before Christmas interrupted, at this time of year I do a round-up of the preceding 12 months. The main reason I do it now is because recounting the highlights of 2008 back in February would've made me look a bit stupid. To conclude, then...

JULY

Remember what I said about bands suddenly becoming good? You can add the Verve to that list, thanks to Love Is Noise. It's got everything, big sound, attitude in buckets and demented shriekings from start to finish. Here's another one for you. Dizzee Rascal and Calvin Harris's Dance Wiv Me. I know I shouldn't like it, I know that, but I do. McFly however, they weren't so lucky. One For The Radio was nowhere near as good as it obviously wanted to be, and went into a tailspin as soon as it entered the chart, which was unusual because McFly singles never do that.

AUGUST

The Saturdays reworked Yazoo's Situation into If This Is Love, but only really succeeded in making the song twice as long and half as interesting. As perennial purveyors of bland driving pop anthems, you'd have been forgiven for expecting Keane to be the last band to turn out a pop song as fun and enjoyable as Spiralling was, but there you go, life's funny like that. And then there was Oasis's The Shock Of The Lightning. I liked that too. The Automatic reached No.16 with Steve McQueen, but it bombed out of the charts by mid-September. The only reason I mention this is to let the playlist bods at Radio 1 know they can stop playing it now.

SEPTEMBER

New Kids On The Block's comeback single triumphantly smashed into the charts... at No.34. Mind you, they didn't really help themselves. Releasing a single called Summertime in a country that's barely seen the sun since 2006 shows a lot of nerve. Cliff Richard released his 50th anniversary single, and didn't get to No.1 so now he's only got 12 months left in which to do it. However... September 2008 will go down in history as the month when a McFly single actually went up the chart. Purely coincidentally, at around the same time Hell County Council was sending out the road gritters.

OCTOBER

Kings of Leon. Couldn't buy a Top 10 single before, but now they've had a No.1 and a No.2 in quick succession. Funny old world. Truth be told, I really can't get into them myself, the lead singer's voice sounds to me like a strangled howl half the time and the sound of it goes straight through me like a packet of liquorice allsorts. That said, I'm clearly in a very small minority on that one at the moment. They're not the only major league band that haven't quite clicked with me, though. Razorlight, the Killers, the Script, Scouting For Girls, Snow Patrol, the list goes on.

NOVEMBER

You may have your favourite song of the year, you may not, it's not up to me what you do with your life. For me though, Frank Turner's Long Live The Queen is hands down the best song I've heard in 2008. If you haven't heard it, get yourself over to YouTube pronto because it's storytelling at its very best. Elsewhere, a godawful cover of Hero went to No.1, the Bellamy Brothers reached the Top 30 and probably laughed their heads off when they found out, and Woolworths went under. I know they'd already stopped selling singles, but the High Street without Woolies... that's going to take some getting used to.

DECEMBER

Take That sang a love song about skyscrapers, loads of Christmas singles hopped back into the Top 40 and Britney Spears reached the Top 3 with Whatsitsname... oh, you know the one... if only I could remember what it was called. Finally, Alexandra Burke may have taken Hallelujah to No.1, Jeff Buckley may have recorded the definitive version, but Leonard Cohen's Christmas isn't going to be too bad is it?

And that's it. 2008 is done. Next week it's business as usual, so you have been warned. All that remains is for me to wish you a Happy New Year before I run out of space, then!