Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan
Gordon Chapman-Fox might not look like an archetypal pop star, though his abundantly monikered musical project has visited the UK top 30 singles chart twice now, in 2023 and earlier this year. Furthermore, could Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan be the longest name in chart history? “I don’t know if they’ve ever chartered but Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra have got a pretty long name,” says Chapman-Fox, who has just pulled up at Cheshire services to conduct this interview on the way to Cardiff where he’ll be playing a show tonight.
As it happens, Silver Mt. Zion have been nowhere near the hit parade, and regardless of whether or not Warrington-Runcorn hold the record (unverifiable as //Prog// went to press), you have to hand it to a Lancastrian quinquagenarian who has built a thriving career on 70s inspired synthesiser music that alludes to urban utopianism. While there are hints of Kraftwerk and Jean-Michel Jarre in his oeuvre, Chapman-Fox’s go to progressive music from the decade of his birth is primarily groups from Germany like Can and Harmonia. Moreover, his prog hero would undoubtedly be Mike Oldfield.
“He’s been a huge inspiration,” he says. “I put 'Tubular Bells' on constant rotation for about a year when I was 12. Another big one is Pink Floyd. As architecture students they had quite an architectural approach to laying out a song. Even something like 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene' has a structural frame that they’d follow quite closely to create something different every time.”
Design and architecture are important to Chapman-Fox. The musician does all of his own artwork, with retro geometric covers that are as evocative as ghost signs. While conceptually, new town developments and the disparity between how they are and how they were intended to be, creates an integral tension in his work. Sixth studio album 'Public Works And Utilities' decries the stealthy calamity of privatisation in modern Britain, with the retrofuturist sonic palette of tracks like the extraordinary 18-minute 'The People Matter' making it sound as though he’s maybe grieving for what might have been.
“There’s that whole thing in hauntology about lost futures,” he says, dismissively, “but I'm not sure it's as much about our lost future as looking at what we had. And also the loss of vision and ambition of successive governments that say: ‘We’d do something about it if we could’. Of course you can do something about it… you're the government! So I don’t see it as mourning for a lost idyllic future. It’s more of a protest record, really.”
And with that, Chapman-Fox puts the key in the ignition in order to leave behind Cheshire Services, a “non-place” as the philosopher Marc Augé would have it sharing certain characteristics with new towns. “They’re certainly both part of the post-war expansion of infrastructure,” says Chapman-Fox, “and they’re partially there for the people and partially there to aid commerce and industry”.
And both foster a sense of disappointment? “In some cases,” he replies, “though having said that, I just got a meal deal for £5.95, so it’s not all bad.”
- Jeremy Allen
Prog File
Lineup: Gordon Chapman-Fox: keyboards (Moog Minitaur, Dreadbox Nymphes, laptop, etc).
Sounds like: Squelchy synths drawn with architectural straight lines to evoke a sense of order and evoke undercurrents of nostalgic wistfulness.
Current release: Public Works and Utilities (Castles in Space)
Website: https://warringtonruncorn.com/
Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan – A musical experiment in civic planning