Name: Interim Report, March 1979
Brand: Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

CIS067WY

Colour

White

Colour details

White Egg Yolk Vinyl

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: Yes

Extended format

Extended format: Yes

Format detail

Housed in Gatefold Sleeve with Printed Inner and with Bonus White Vinyl 7" Featuring 'Weston Point' and 'Weaver Navigation' plus Signed Postcard.

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2023-10-20

Signed copies

Signed copies: Yes

Supplier GB

State 51

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

Total Cap

White LP | Signed Copy | Rough Trade Exclusive

CiS067Y

Yellow

Yellow with Black

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Housed in Gatefold Sleeve with Printed Inner and with Bonus Yellow 7" Featuring 'Weston Point' and 'Weaver Navigation'.

Signed copies: No

5057805505785

Yellow LP

Artist

Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan

Genre GB

Electronic

Label GB

Castles in Space

Castles in Space is a record label based in Biggleswade, UK. We specialize in producing hand numbered colored wax editions of music releases, accompanied by inserts and badges. Our focus is on curating unique and limited edition vinyl records that are both visually stunning and sonically captivating. With our passion for quality craftsmanship and attention to detail, we aim to provide music enthusiasts with an exceptional listening experience.

Gordon Chapman-Fox was born in the 1970s and spent his childhood re-enacting Star Wars to the sounds of Jean-Michel Jarre against the backdrop of the last gasp of the space-race. Gordon has been making electronic music since 2003 under various names and labels. Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan is his latest project.

Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan has seen four albums released to critical and popular acclaim under the much respected Castles In Space imprint.

Newest Listed Items

Interim Report, March 1997 by Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan is Gordon Chapman Fox’s hymn and homage to the brutalist beauty of Cheshire’s designated new towns of Warrington and Runcorn.

Chapman-Fox grew up in Lancashire, and having been a frequent user of the famous Preston Bus Station in his youth, he was struck by the enormous chasm between the sixties architects utopian vision for what new towns should be and the sticky-floored, piss-streaked reality. He explains: “The more I looked into it, the appeal of these visionary architects grew. It felt like perhaps the most visionary building projects of all post war Britain were some of the estates built in Warrington and Runcorn new towns, these twin towns on either side of the Mersey. The estates of Runcorn were space-age futurist with external plumbing, rounded windows and raised walkways. But as housing, they were a failure. Runcorn was the last great UK modernist, futurist building project built with a community in mind. Interim Report, March 1979 looks at this interim, this gap between vision and reality.”

At the time of recording the album, he says, “It seemed like there were a lot of ersatz-soundtracks to lost John Carpenter films, or obscure giallo “classics”. I preferred to find inspiration from the surreality of the mundane, hence the creation of Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan. 1979 seemed the perfect point to be located in time, sitting on the razor’s edge between the post-war consensus and the dawn of Thatcherism. As the concept took hold, I tried to format the music according to the capabilities of a small, provincial recording studio in 1979. I limited the number of instruments available, the number of tracks available and so on. This really helped to shape the album and anchor the concept. As a teenager, I was into rock and looking for ever more extreme sounds - AC/DC gave way to Metallica gave way to Carcass. But by the 90s I heard Warp artists and that was me hooked. What they were doing could be far more brutal than anything by four sweaty long-haired guys with guitars. But it could also be funky, beautiful, ethereal, melodic and so much more.” It’s that ethereality and true sense of time and place that Chapman-Fox has captured so well here. “1979 marked a change in the political and wider culture of British society. The Warrington- Runcorn development marks the swan song of post-war urban planning in the UK – soon the ethos of building better communities would be replaced by Thatcherite “no such thing as society” and “Greed is good” mentality. And look where that got us…“ 

Interim Report, March 1979

Music GB

Discover Interim Report, March 1979 by Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan. Limited Edition LPs and CD available. A hymn to the brutalist beauty of Cheshire's new towns. From Castles in Space.