Night Czar Amy Lamé on gender neutral toilets and her new BBC 6 Music radio show

As she takes over Jarvis Cocker’s radio slot, Night Czar Amy Lamé tells Craig McLean about her high jinks on the 24-hour Tube, gender neutral toilets and why London is a global party capital
24-hour party person: Amy Lamé, who has a new show on BBC 6 Music
Matt Writtle/ 100 club
Craig McLean2 January 2018

It’s barely 10am in a Soho basement and Amy Lamé is already clubbing. So it goes when you’re the capital’s first-ever Night Czar, a mayoral appointee charged with ensuring London parties hard.

But while we are indeed in a club (storied music venue The 100 Club), we’re only here at breakfast o’clock because Lamé knows the manager and we needed a location near the W1A HQ of the BBC, her other new employers.

The City Hall obligations of this sometime comedian, club-runner and LGBT activist are far more than “partying hard”. The “watching brief” of the 46-year-old American hired by Sadiq Khan in November 2016 encompasses multiple aspects of London’s after-dark life and economy. These range from pubbing and clubbing to transport and frontline NHS services, and multiple points in between — notably issues relating to women.

And on top of that, this coming Sunday Lamé starts her new BBC 6 Music radio show. Having filled in for various DJs over the past few years, this former radio presenter on the London station GLR is taking over the two-hour slot vacated by Jarvis Cocker’s much-loved Sunday Service.

As a committed radio head, and a Cocker fan, the woman born Amy Caddle admits having some nerves.

“It was nice to meet Jarvis and talk about it, so it feels like there’s a handing on of the baton — and that it’s being done with care and love and rock ’n’ roll independent spirit!” the ever-enthusiastic Lamé beams with a smile as bright as her fabulous red frock.

In terms of programme features, this seasoned stand-up and cabaret performer promises to involve the listeners (“because Sundays can be quite quiet”), in part by making a nod to her day job/night job. Lamé is keen for the show to function as “the day after the night before”, meaning she wants the 6 Music audience to help her “highlight all the great events in clubs, live music places and parties going on up and down the country”. Cue an item with a working title of Last Night a DJ Saved My Life.

Her music policy, meanwhile, will be “30 per cent new” artists and tracks, a nod to her still voracious appetite for live music. Her last show was at The Windmill in Brixton, a three-band bill hosted by indie record label 1965. “I’ve been going to gigs since I was 15, and I love it when you see a band, in a venue, that brings you right back to that original spirit. And I think: ‘Oh my God, this is why I love what I do! I’m in a spit-and-sawdust pub on a backstreet in Brixton seeing the most awesome bands ever’.”

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Lamé has lived in London since 1992 and home is now near King’s Cross. She made a beeline here from smalltown New Jersey (“not cosmopolitan, not open-minded”), viewing the city as “a place people have always come to be themselves — we don’t just tolerate diversity, we actually celebrate it. So I felt like London was home from the beginning.”

With more than two decades’ experience working in live entertainment, Lamé was well equipped to take on the role of Night Czar. From her first year in office she counts as successes the reopening of Farringdon nightclub Fabric and the scrapping by the Met of its Form 696. It was a risk assessment that “was said to be applied by the police, allegedly, in a racist way” in that it focused on events featuring DJs and MCs.

She’s also pleased with the success of the Night Tube, citing nine million journeys and a £170 million boost to the night-time economy in its first year in operation. She’s similarly enthused by the Night Overground — Lamé helped open the “ginger line” in mid-December.

“I was on the train for a couple of hours, just talking to people. I met two girls who were finishing work in east London, and they used to have to get three buses home. Now they get the Overground to New Cross Gate and a bus for the last bit of the journey. It cut out 45 minutes for them. That’s incredible. You can be home quicker, you can be home safer.”

Speaking of transport matters, where does she stand on Uber’s current licensing difficulties in London? Lamé pauses and quickly marshals her words. “That’s really for TfL to be… ah, they’re handling it.”

Pressed, she acknowledges that verification of drivers’ credentials is a key stumbling block.

“It’s a safety issue. That is why the licence wasn’t renewed, and that is something that TfL is looking at. It’s important that, whatever company it is — and I don’t want to say this is just an Uber thing, this is across the board — everybody has to adhere to safety rules and regulations.”

Amy Lame: the Night Czar has introduced the new programme to keep women safe at night in London
Alamy Stock Photo

Currently in Lamé’s in-tray is the Women’s Night Safety Charter, due to be published in the first quarter of 2018. “As a woman who really loves going out at night, who’s always worked at night, I really understand the challenges women face,” says Lamé, who co-founded arts collective Duckie in 1995. “Whatever you’re doing at night, whether it’s going to and from work, or a gig, or picking up your kids, I want women to feel safe. And not just to feel safe but to be safe.

“If we want to have a 24-hour city we have to take all of this into consideration,” she continues. “London is an incredibly safe place but I want it to be the safest city in the world for women.”

It’s understandable if the voluble Lamé is still coming to terms with the strictures of her political position, and of the scrutiny that goes with it. Early last month she was dragged into the headlines when Conservative London Assembly member Susan Hall pointed out that, in her first year, Lamé had only held five night surgeries and met representatives from only 18 out of 32 boroughs. Her response?

Pride in London: Amy Lamé thinks it's important to have more LGBTQ+ people in politics

“It’s interesting because I spend so much of my time meeting so many people, from councillors and heads of local authorities through to people working in pubs and clubs but also in the NHS. My role as Night Czar is not just about bars, pubs and clubs. If you take every aspect of life that we enjoy in London, and flip it into the dark, that is my watching brief.

“So is it better to spend time meeting the head of a council, or the doctor who’s running Homerton A&E on a Friday night? I’ve certainly made an effort to meet with as many councils as possible.”

She adds that since September she’s been working full-time, up from two-and-a-half days a week, with her salary more than doubling to £75,000. Her initial part-time status reflected the fact that the Mayor’s office was “very cautious about what the job might entail”.

“London is not a part-time city!” she laughs her hearty laugh. “[Now] I’m able to dig a bit deeper. And I’d love to go and meet with all the councils I haven’t met — in fact I sent them Christmas cards.”

Dry January: 'Mindful drinkers' go on alcohol-free pub crawl

Lamé and her wife, Anglican priest the Rev Jennie Hogan, spent Christmas in the French Pyrenees. It’s “a recharge”. Does that prefigure a dry January? How, indeed, does the Night Czar “do” the Anti-Party Month? “You can’t do dry January if your birthday’s in January!” she hoots. “I applaud people who are able to do that but I’d rather just balance it throughout the year. Have you heard of mindful drinking?”

I’m Scottish, so of course not. “It’s about looking at ways of reducing how much you drink. I can see you’re looking sceptical… But actually, the other night I had to go out and work on the Overground. Obviously I can’t drink when I’m working, so I had one of these no-alcohol gin and tonics. It was amazing! It’s not cheaper, by the way, but at least it makes you feel like you’re still in a festive mood.”

Before she goes, a question on another pressing issue for London’s clubland: where does the Night Czar stand — or, indeed, sit — on gender-neutral toilets? “Everybody should be able to go to the loo wherever they want to. As long as it’s clean! My dad’s a plumber, so I’m very pro-toilet!

"Wherever you want to go to the loo — as long as it’s in the loo — that’s totally fine by me.”