Bryan Ferry, lead singer of the band Roxy Music, grew up in Washington, and often visited Penshaw Hill with his father. He told "The Times" that the monument made a significant impression on him as a child, and seemed "like a symbol... representing art, and another life, away from the coal fields and the hard Northeastern environment; it seemed to represent something from another civilization, that was much finer". He has conceded, however, that the monument is "essentially a folly, a building without purpose". In his book on Roxy Music, Michael Bracewell describes the experience of approaching the monument: "its immensity drawing nearer, the heroic ideal of the place falls away. Grandeur gives way to mere enormity, statement to silence, substance to emptiness... his solid memorial... was designed, like stage scenery, to be appreciated from a distance."