26: The Railway Children, “Every Beat of the Heart” (no.24, 1991)

Northern legend has it that, given the choice between signing this jangly Wigan guitar act and signing the Stone Roses, Factory boss Tony Wilson plumped firmly for the former - and, in this at least, one has to conclude he was entirely right, if only because The Railway Children would eventually go on to give us the haunting, evanescent beauty of “Every Beat of the Heart”, their only chart hit, which just cuts deeper than anything lurking amongst the Stone Roses’ increasingly humourless and flatulent output. The guitars here join the dots between romance and mortality, between falling in love and falling to your death; listening to your heart, we soon gather, only makes us more aware that some day, it’s gonna stop. Back in 1991, this was one of the very few bands I wanted to be a part of, so that I, too, could flaunt my cheekbones and tousled hair in sultry monochrome pop promos.