This got us thinking about the links between regeneration and pop music. Poverty and deprivation have informed the work of artists for decades - think The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby, or We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place by The Animals, which was written about Newcastle in the 1960s.
Music has also inspired the work of regeneration practitioners. Overgrown squirrel rapper MC Nuts was hired by the Cumbria Tourist Board to promote Lakeland to younger visitors with a hip-hop version of Wordsworth's classic: 'I wandered lonely as a cloud'. And Homes & Communities chief Sir Bob Kerslake recently revealed in an interview that he's a great fan of hip-hop and listens to heavy metal while walking in the Peak District.
We don't have a stereo in the office, but if we did, these are some of the songs that would be playing:
We Built This City - Starship
Village Ghetto Land - Stevie Wonder
Inner City Life - Goldie
10 Storey Love Song - Stone Roses
Skills to Pay the Bills - Beastie Boys
Life on MAAs - David Bowie
Thames Gateway Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon and Garfunkel
Any more to add to our playlist?
