To start a new year for Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan, the first two albums – Interim Report, March 1979 and People & Industry have now arrived on all major streaming platforms.
The past 12 months have seen Gordon Chapman-Fox sell out copies of his third album, Districts, Roads, Open Space. The album made the UK albums chart when it was released in October, hitting 60 in the top 100 albums and positioned at 20 in the UK vinyl album charts.
Limited edition single
To mark the first gig of 2023 at Bedford Esquires, Castles In Space will release an ultra-limited edition 7″.
The limited edition lathe-cut single will only be available at the gig and is strictly limited to 50 copies. The songs on it are the two tracks that have recently appeared on the Moonbuilding magazine compilations.
The gig, on 11th February, will also feature a new exclusive release from Polypores and Field Lines Cartographer. Tickets are available at seetickets.com
Interim Report, March 1979 special edition
The first album, Interim Report, March 1979, will soon be released in a special edition with two types of yellow, black and clear splatter vinyl. The album artwork has been updated to fit a new gatefold sleeve.
Two previously unearthed tracks from these sessions will be available as digital bonus tracks for people buying the special edition. People who have previously purchased the album via Bandcamp will have these tracks added to their digital version of the album.
The two bonus tracks will be available on an additional 7″ single available as an exclusive edition with Rough Trade.
Districts, Roads, Open Space repress
Districts, Roads, Open Space will be repressed on coloured vinyl and CD to meet continued demand. The vinyl will be in smoky black, and a Rough Trade exclusive version will be in purple haze vinyl.
New music
If all this wasn’t enough, two new releases from Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan are due in the summer of 2023.
The Nation’s Most Central Location is the fourth full-length album on Castles In Space records. Featuring 8 expansive tracks, the album will be available on vinyl, CD and streaming. Continuing the exploration of the gulf between the dreams of the planners and the collapse of their ambitions. Possibly some of the rawest music Gordon has created, this album mirrors the failure of Runcorn’s futuristic developments with the repeated failure of Government ‘levelling up’ and ‘Northern Powerhouse’ projects.
The EP Building A New Town captures a more pastoral, idyllic version of the New Towns movement in their first flush of development. Comparing the first record’s time frame of 1979, this record is set in an imagined 1974, and the musical influences are the more bucolic merging of folk and progressive music of that era.
The Nation’s Most Central Location will be available mid/late May 2023, with the Building A New Town EP coming in Autumn 2023.
Live dates
On top of all these releases, there is a long list of live dates to look forward to, including appearances at the Deer Shed Festival in July, headlining Iklectik in Lambeth in May, and the Castles In Space Levitation23 festivals in May and November.