A music duo who stage pop-up discos from the back of a black cab have been allowed to play outside Hackney Wick station. At the hearing, the organiser told councillors he had already been holding regular events there without the paperwork the law requires.
Boys in the Taxi, formed of DJ Boyblue and MC Dean C, have staged performances across east and central London playing garage, party anthems and club classics out of a Hackney carriage.
The pair gave Hackney Council notice of plans to play on the pavement outside Hackney Wick Overground station between 8pm and 10pm on Saturday 14 November. The Metropolitan Police objected and asked the council to issue a counter notice that would have stopped the event.
At a licensing hearing on Tuesday (3 November), PC Chris Stockman said police had concerns about public safety and noise nuisance. He said there were “no physical controls restricting attendance, no formal stewarding provision, no barriers or containment measures” for an event in an “unrestricted public space” next to a busy transport hub.
“Police are particularly concerned that, once published, attendance may exceed the figures now suggested by the applicant,” he said. “In an open public environment, there appears to be no practical mechanism to control numbers should attendance increase beyond expectations.”
Street party
PC Stockman pointed to a street party involving the duo’s taxi on 19 September. Police were called to it after Hackney’s noise enforcement team received complaints. He said officers found between 100 and 150 people there and the road obstructed.
Asked by Cllr Alastair Binnie-Lubbock whether any crime or disorder had been logged that night, PC Stockman said he did not have that information. He also could not say whether the event had been stopped early. He said he had been “half expecting” council environmental health officers to attend the hearing.
DJ Boyblue, whose real name is Jason Richards, had put a maximum of 400 people on his Temporary Event Notice (TEN). In emails to police before the hearing, he estimated a core crowd of about 70, with up to 30 passers-by stopping briefly.
PC Stockman raised what he called “concerns around the transparency aspect” of the gap between the two figures. “If that was the case, why not put that down in the application?” he asked.
Richards told councillors that the 400 figure included people walking past. “If you’re talking about people staying at the location for two hours, I would say about 100 people, maybe 120,” he said. “It’s not going to be 400.”
He said the police had turned up to the September event about 10 minutes after it ended. “We finished dead on 10pm,” he said. “A good crowd of people, older crowd, no young people causing mischief.”
No notice
Under questioning, Richards said the group had been holding events outside Hackney Wick station every two weeks without giving notice to the council. “We didn’t realise what we needed to do,” he said. He said he would now give notice in Hackney and any other borough the group played in.
Cllr Binnie-Lubbock praised him for trying to do things “the correct way”. He reminded him that people without a personal licence can give no more than five TENs a year.
Richards said the crowd would be looked after by six volunteers who follow the group online. His email to police had mentioned three volunteer stewards. “No, they’re not security,” he said. “We’re not making any money out of this. There’s no money to pay anybody to be security for the event.”
“If we were making a lot of money, we could afford a security team to come down and bring down ropes and bring down barriers,” he added.
The group promotes its events through live videos to a “quite big following on social media”. Richards admitted: “I have no way of knowing how many people are going to turn up.” He said the group would stop the music and ask people to leave if the walkway could not be kept clear.
Neighbours
He said he had spoken to neighbours, including traders running a jerk chicken stand and a hot dog stand, who welcomed the extra business. He said the crowd was usually on its way to the area’s bars and clubs anyway. “It’s like a pre- kind of party before they go out,” he said.
He said volunteers had cleared every bit of litter after the last event at the station. He was not asking to play every week, “just an occasional live for the local community”, perhaps once a month.
“We don’t make any money, we just do it for the love,” Richards said. “You’re always going to get one or two complaints, no matter what you do.”
Station space
Cllr Binnie-Lubbock said he had been at the station a day or two before the hearing. He described the space as wider than a normal footway, with several exits, and suggested there would be little risk of bottlenecks. PC Stockman replied that the station was “designed for people to come and go” and was “not designed to hold events of 200 people”.
In his closing remarks, Richards said the bars around Queen’s Yard already drew crowds of drinkers every weekend without trouble. PC Stockman then corrected him. he had not described the crowd as rowdy, Stockman said, but had referred to “those that may be intoxicated”. He said licensed venues had SIA door staff, barriers and toughened glassware, none of which would be in place on the pavement.
Boys in the Taxi has previously staged events on Regent Street, at Piccadilly Circus and in Hackney. Videos on the group’s social media claim to show more than a dozen police officers being called to one of its events outside Boxpark Shoreditch in April 2025.
A Hackney Council licensing sub-committee decided on Friday (6 November) not to issue a counter notice, allowing the event to go ahead.
With additional reporting by Hackney Citizen.
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