In Hackney we can, these days, pride ourselves on the quality of the music produced in our east London borough. The talented sons and daughters of the inner-city 'hood include chart-topping rapper Professor Green, X Factor champion Leona Lewis and hat-wearing pop star Paloma Faith.
But what about the music that comes to Hackney? Lacking a major venue or Royal Park, we've mostly missed out on big-ticket gigs featuring international stars. Until, that is, this summer. Last month, Hackney Marshes — a huge open space that is normally home to dozens of football pitches, the biggest such sports facility in Europe — hosted BBC Radio One's Hackney Weekend 2012.
Suddenly we had A-listers on our doorstep. Over two days, David Guetta, Jay-Z, Rihanna and Swedish House Mafia played to a crowd of 100,000, a good chunk of them Hackney residents — us locals were given first refusal on tickets to the free event.
This, already, was the London 2012 bounce in full-effect. The Olympic and Paralympic Games legacy being delivered before they had even started. The benefits of Hackney being chosen as a host borough, one of the homes of the Olympic Park, were flowing fast. Across our once blighted and benighted community, we were lit up with a proper civic glow. Yes, it wasn't so long ago that we had a busy road dubbed Murder Mile. But now we could claim more fame than infamy. Hackney-ite and proud.
