WARRINGTON-RUNCORN NEW TOWN DEVELOPMENT PLAN + THE MISTYS – KOMEDIA STUDIO, BRIGHTON 13.4.24
It’s a terrifically busy day today on the live music scene here in Brighton with Johnny Marr performing a 19 song set which includes 8 Smiths songs at Brighton Dome with support coming from Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes (See photos below); then there’s the first ever ‘Homegrown Festival’ taking place at six different concert venues and featuring no less than 51 mainly local bands showing off their capabilities. We are out in force for this exciting new event and the reviews will follow in due course. Thus we make the decision to concentrate on new music today and so I witness a handful of new music sets at the ‘Homegrown Festival’ and then go off-piste and instead of heading to the Dome, I bolt along to the Komedia and enter their Studio Bar in order to be totally absorbed into the world of the wonderfully titled Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan (WRNTDP). A name I noted a few months back on the Love Thy Neighbour promoters forthcoming gigs list. I investigated more and the obsession began! I played every YouTube video I could find and then checked out all of the releases on the WRNTDP Bandcamp page HERE. I was caught in the WRNTDP spell.
WRNTDP is the moniker of one Gordon Chapman-Fox who produces wonderful propulsive, cinematic electronica which has a musical, conceptual and aesthetic setting in the mid 1970s. His live performances are accompanied by a nostalgic background film of normal life at the time which has been principally culled from a 1974 documentary made by the National Film Board Of Canada, which incidentally is where the band Boards Of Canada got their name. Graham has been making great inroads since his debut in 2020 and after his ‘End Of The Road’ set on 3rd September 2022, Gordon has begun a definite move towards the mainstream consciousness, with his appearance there being noted in the Financial Times’ review of the festival.
Gordon’s journey began with the launch of ‘Interim Report, March 1979’, which despite its title is a long player record that hit the unsuspecting world on 26th February 2021, and was Gordon’s hymn and homage to the brutalist beauty of Cheshire’s designated new towns of Warrington and Runcorn. On 3rd September the same year, the ‘People And Industry’ album carried the same message and picked up where the first left off, really. Musically it was recorded back to back with ‘Interim Report, March 1979’ and there is a progression in the sound, but it’s definitely cut from the same cloth as the first album. It still very much exists in this euphoric melancholy. Third instalment ‘Districts, Roads, Open Space’ followed on 10th October 2022, with the music reflecting the social isolation of New Towns life. This was mirrored by its creation through two years of pandemic lockdown.
Gordon’s work is regularly played on the BBC and he was asked to contribute to Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone special of hauntology, and was included in Shindig Magazine’s “ones to watch in 2023” feature, where they said “The richness of his visionary music is becoming progressively more enticing. A must for 2023”. The campaign for the latest album, ‘The Nation’s Most Central Location’, has seen major features in Electronic Sound magazine and The Quietus. The album was also given 8/10 in a review/interview piece in Uncut.
What’s difficult to convey is how much these records have resonated with so many cross sections of the public. From electronica fans, to town planners, architects and academics, current and ex-new town dwellers, futurists and nostalgia freaks, the reach and affection for this music has been quite a revelation. In an adept development, the work has become more overtly politicised as Gordon reflects and refracts the broken promises made over generations to those in the North of England. Brought into sharp relief with the latest levelling up debacle, although of the past, the music couldn’t be more current. It’s emotional and moving and it connects deeply with many people. The latest release being the 4 tune 12” ‘Building a New Town’ which dropped on 8th August last year.
I arrive at the Komedia in time to catch the beginning of the support artists set, which I will come to shortly. The Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan performance (my seventh live set of the day) commences from 8:46pm and continuously runs for the next 71 minutes until 9:57pm. We are positioned at the very front and at several times throughout the performance I lay my hand on top of the speakers in order to feel the vibrations from the sounds, for an even more immersive experience. I noted that a chap near me was enjoying the set, mainly with his eyes closed. I too copied him a few times and this did heighten the experience and convey the true depth of sound on offer, although the trade-off during my shut-eye was to miss the nostalgic films of lost everyday life in Britain. There is a true yearning for the past when watching the films of a time when I was finishing primary school and things were simpler then and everything appears to be joyous. I, myself, refer to this as “Ladybirdland” as in the nostalgia felt whilst reading Ladybird books, where everything is wonderful and fluffy and children are safe to go out and play on the swings and on their bikes without a care in the world.
The ‘Britishness’ audio-visual presentation this evening makes one yearn for a bygone age and instead of the Glam Rock music of the time, we are given instrumental music which is in the same mould as Tangerine Dream and Jean-Michel Jarre and even a slight nod to Kraftwerk. The sound is thankfully absolutely crisp and clear and the swirling rhythms and electronic bleeps are pure joy. We are talking about the imagery and sounds prior to the earth moving arrival of punk rock and a time where Britain was learning to cope with this new decimalization. A few years after this in the late 1970’s, I used to go up to London specifically to go to the London Planetarium on Baker Street and enjoy watching their lazer shows of recorded tunes with lasers whizzing around our heads as we sat back in large comfortable recliner chairs. It had the feeling of being outside somewhere like Stonehenge or inside the Arctic Circle where amazing things were happening in the sky above us, like a concentrated Aurora Borealis. One such show was of the music of Jean-Michel Jarre and the music of Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan would be absolutely perfect for one of these shows. But sadly this is not possible as the shows ran from only 1977 to 1990.
I was surprised with the motionless attendees this evening as they mainly appeared to be in their 50’s, whereas I had anticipated a true cross-section. Gordon also quite possibly falls into this age bracket and simply looks like your average common man, but what he looks like and his age is irrelevant, for it is the music that has brought me here and the opening number is arguably as good as anything found on Jarre’s ‘Équinoxe’ album. My eyes are first drawn to Gordon in order to see his choice of equipment, but almost immediately the lure of watching the street films of ordinary people that I’m so glad has recorded for prosperity, has drawn my attention. It’s fascinating watching the historic films and the yearning of a bygone era with the old cars, and the then new buildings and fashions of the time being broadcast. Gordon occasionally grabs our attention with a raised arm in order to indicate a change of beat, one example of which being a warning of the arrival of an impending seriously deep venue shaking bass sound, which caught a chap next to me unawares as he jumped out of his skin on its arrival. God knows what the rest of the folk thought in the other parts of the building where a comedy show was underway.
The crowd absorbed everything that was thrown at them during the 14 tune set, which incidentally included material from the forthcoming ‘Your Community Hub’ album which is set to drop on 24th May, and by the set conclusion at 9:57pm, it was very much a case of job done. It had been a wonderful experience and it would be even better that next time Gordon selects some really out there locations to play on his next tour, places like secret underground bunkers, caves and tunnels, or even The National Science and Media Museum, located in Bradford. Now that would truly be something. So if electronica is your bag and your record collection is littered with Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Boards Of Canada Jean-Michel Jarre and the like, then Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan are an essential addition to your collection. I would go and see performing live again without fail.
Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan:
Gordon Chapman-Fox – electronics
Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan setlist:
‘Swift, Safe And Comfortable’ (yet to be released)
‘Thelwall Viaduct’ (from 2023 ‘The Nation’s Most Central Location’ album)
‘A New Town With An Old Sense Of Community’ (from forthcoming 2024 ‘Your Community Hub’ album)
‘Foxma 1’ (from 2022 ‘Live At Fox Fest’ mini-album)
‘Sunset Over Stanlow’ (yet to be released)
‘The View From Halton Castle’ (from 2023 ‘Building A New Town’ EP)
‘Polytechnic’ (from 2021 ‘People & Industry’ album)
‘A Shared Sense Of Purpose’ (from forthcoming 2024 ‘Your Community Hub’ album)
‘Rapid Transport Links’ (from forthcoming 2024 ‘Your Community Hub’ album)
‘Just Off The M56 (J12)’ (from 2023 ‘The Nation’s Most Central Location’ album)
‘Rocksavage’ (from 2023 ‘The Nation’s Most Central Location’ album)
‘Away From It All And Back Again’ (yet to be released)
‘Golden Square’ (from 2022 ‘Districts, Roads, Open Space’ album)
‘Busway’ (from 2023 ‘The Nation’s Most Central Location’ album)
Support this evening came from The Mistys who are Beth Roberts (vocals) and Andrew Hargreaves (electronics and laptop) and in their own words say that “The Mistys are a pop group. The Mistys are in love with drum machines, wonky synths, close miked vocals, cassette warble and reverb. The Mistys are fans of French pop, new wave, punk, downtempo and slow disco. The project serves as a vehicle for Andrew and Beth to explore concepts of pop as a subversive medium; a way to communicate ideas other than the usual messages of love and other such frivolities, but in a context that means the listener could still “jitter bug along”, even if they missed the point”.
The Mistys are my sixth live performance of the day, and their 43 minute 11 track set runs from 7:40pm until 8:23pm. The duo’s performance like the headliners is one continuous mixtape with no gaps, and there is almost no time in which for the punters to show their appreciation after each composition appears to end. They simply take to the stage and without any banter they offload the work to us. None of their songs outstay their welcome and in fact, just as I get into a few of them, the electronic beats change and they are off with another number. Their material is more dance-oriented than that of WRNTDP and they somewhat remind me of Glasgow’s Free Love duo. Once you hear a tune from The Mistys, then when you hear another one, you immediately know who it is, which is also the case with for instance with Swedish singer-songwriter Molly Nilsson, although Beth’s vocals are completely different to Molly’s, think the higher-pitched tones of Australian singer Noosha Fox who was known as the lead singer of the band Fox, or rising star Alexa Povey of Circe fame.
Tonight is my debut encounter with The Mistys and their set begins with a trio of songs called ‘Double Body’, ‘Intelligent Fashion’ and ‘Contingent Identity’. The electronic music for these varies in BPM’s, but the deep bass synth notes are particularly enjoyable. They ramp these up even further with the arrival of ‘Fist Of Bees’, ‘Occurrences’ and ‘Bite Marks’ and there’s a late 1970’s sharp sounding boppy vibe starting to appear, which is most welcomed by yours truly. They are clearly having fun, especially knob-twiddling Andrew who starts to throw a few moves, which brings a smile to Beth’s face. ‘Promises Made’, ‘Stalking’ and ‘Severed Binds’ are their next selections, which although initially a slower bursting beat, it’s not long before we get some decent plinky key sounding action and then the booming bass notes kick in and we are served some explosive tunes. They sign off with ‘A Birds Name’ and ‘A Hand Is To Hold’, with the former offloading their most bangin’ beats which certainly can’t fail to get your body moving. I’d suggest that it’s their most chart-friendly tune. The haunting keys and hi-hat action on their closing number, which ends with Beth taking over the controls for a few seconds whilst Andrew ups and leaves the stage and whizzes through the audience. Beth follows suit shortly afterwards and the punters reward them with the appropriate response. It has been an enjoyable experience to be in their company.
The Mistys:
Beth Roberts – vocals
Andrew Hargreaves – electronics
The Mistys setlist:
‘Double Body’
‘Intelligent Fashion’
‘Contingent Identity’
‘Fist Of Bees’
‘Occurrences’
‘Bite Marks’
‘Promises Made’
‘Stalking’
‘Severed Binds’
‘A Birds Name’
‘A Hand Is To Hold’
Sounds like I missed a good one.
If you’re a fan of evocative films and an overdubbed score, check out Saint Etienne’s 2013 film ‘How We Used To Live’, an enjoyable slice of lamented nostalgia from 1950’s-80’s London.