Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan - People & Industry Special Edition

Yellow Splatter Colour + 12"

Tracklist:

1. Fanfare For the Working Man
2. Built By Robots
3. Petrochemical
4. This is the Age of the Train
5. Man and Manufacturing
6. Part of the Union
7. Polytechnic
8. Eye See Eye
9. Managed Decline
10. Bonus: Aerospace
11. Bonus: Industrial Zone
12. Bonus: Polytechnic (2025 Live Version)
13. Bonus: Standard Industrial Classification (AKA Part One From Werra Foxma Live)

Castles in Space are thrilled to present this deluxe edition of the second Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan album, "People & Industry".

Originally released in September 2021, this is a beautiful new edition featuring four bonus tracks on a second disc which have never been released on vinyl before.

“It’s been amazing to revisit this album”, says Gordon Chapman-Fox. “It’s one that people didn't get chance to hear, and it was overlooked following the success of the debut album, "Interim Report March 1979", but revisiting it has made me fall in love with it all over again. Returning to the album after five years opened up a whole series of delights at some melodic choices, and some really unusual creative decisions I made.”

The original album came with two bonus tracks as a Bandcamp exclusive. These are now presented here on vinyl for the first time. They are joined on the bonus EP with reworked versions of contemporaneous tracks, one from the original album, and a track that was composed for a live online festival during one of our many lockdowns.

Gordon continues, “I dug these tracks out when I was looking for tracks to perform live, and Petrochemical just leapt out. As I’ve developed these tracks from performing across the UK and Europe, they’ve become more beat driven, so transforming this from a beautiful arpeggio-filled lullaby into something funkier was a lot of fun, and it’s still in my live set. The other track was written for the FoxFest - you can still see the original video of this on my YouTube page. I’d always meant to do something with the tracks from that set, and the first one in particular.

"The theme is very much to celebrate the workers and industry that was absolutely booming around Warrington, Widnes and Runcorn in the late 70s. From coal mining, to chemicals, to cars, the area was an absolute hive of industry. Some of those businesses are still very much in the area, but a lot has changed since then. This album, much like the first, looks back to look forward. It is is nostalgic but with 40 years of hindsight."

This new double vinyl edition has been redisgned by Gordon in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve and pressed on beautiful splatter vinyl by our friends at Dunk in Belgium.

"Nobody within the modern age has created synth-led tracks in quite the same way as Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan."
Far Out Magazine

"Crumbling buildings and decaying ambitions live in the long sighs, rendered as celestial synth sweeps and patient thuds eking out tension."
Bleep

"For all its heaviness, it’s Chapman-Fox’s melodies, arrangements, and clear-eyed anger that make WRNTDP worth seeking out. He masterfully folds time and brings the past right up flush to the present."
A Closer Listen

"His debut album sold out in less than 10 minutes. How people knew about him was proper magic, as was the music contained within."
Spotify

"WRNTDP has a very visual sound with the project growing out of a track on the first album called ‘Aerial Views By Helicopter’. Here you can almost hear that ’copter chop-chop-chopping and see the camera tracking the M6 traffic across ‘Thelwall Viaduct’ and sweeping up the grand plazas of Warrington’s ‘Europa Boulevard’. He just ticks all the boxes. Track titles speak volumes. Take ‘Rocksavage’. It’s the location of a massive gas works on the outskirts of Runcorn. Sounding like something off the ‘Drive’ soundtrack, you can almost see moody nighttime footage set to its metronomic beat."
Neil Mason, Juno

"With music that ranges from the lachrymose to the frightening with a semblance of hope sandwiched in between, the album explores the relationship between England’s North and South to reflect on 40 years of broken ‘levelling up’ promises."
The Quietus

"If only visiting Warrington or Runcorn were as majestic as allowing the glacial synths of Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan’s new album to sluice through our ears! The album offers Gordon's usual mix of mournful remorse and upbeat optimism. By now, however, there’s an underlying anger which burns through."
Resident Records