A duo who play garage and party anthems from the back of a black cab will be allowed to hold a two-hour disco on the pavement outside Hackney Wick station on Saturday 14 November, after Hackney Council refused to stop it at the Metropolitan Police’s request.
Boys in the Taxi, made up of DJ Boyblue and MC Dean C, will play between 8pm and 10pm. Their Temporary Event Notice allows up to 400 people at any one time. The council’s licensing sub-committee decided at a hearing on Tuesday 3 November not to issue a counter notice, which would have stopped it. The decision was published on 7 November.
What the police said
At the hearing, PC Chris Stockman said the event would take place in an “unrestricted public space” next to a busy transport hub with “no physical controls restricting attendance, no formal stewarding provision, no barriers or containment measures”, the Hackney Citizen reported.
He pointed to an event involving the taxi on 19 September. Police were called to it after Hackney’s noise enforcement team received complaints, and he said officers found between 100 and 150 people there, with the road obstructed. Asked whether any crime or disorder had been logged that night, he said he did not have that information.
What the organiser said
DJ Boyblue, whose real name is Jason Richards, told councillors the 400 on the notice 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 duo had been playing outside the station every two weeks without giving the council notice. “We didn’t realise what we needed to do,” he said, adding that he would now give notice in each borough the group plays in. He said six volunteers would look after the crowd and the music would stop if the walkway could not be kept clear.
Cllr Alastair Binnie-Lubbock reminded him that people without a personal licence can give no more than five such notices a year.
The sub-committee said the event was short, was only amplified music, and was likely to be a valuable addition to Hackney’s cultural scene. It said the operator appeared credible and had run events before without any recorded complaints. The Met’s concerns were taken seriously, it said, but the balance of evidence favoured letting it go ahead.
Boys in the Taxi have also played on Regent Street and at Piccadilly Circus. 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, the Hackney Citizen reported.
The essentials
- What: Boys in the Taxi, a pavement disco from a black cab
- Where: pavement outside Hackney Wick Overground station, left of the main entrance as you leave
- When: Saturday 14 November 2026, 8pm to 10pm
- Cost: the group says it makes no money from its events; the notice allows up to 400 people at any one time