If you’ve read much about London Night Czar Amy Lamé recently, it’s unlikely to have been particularly flattering. Since being appointed in 2016 to advocate for the capital’s nightlife and improve late-night policy-making, her whopping £130k salary and apparent inability to deliver tangible results have been met with increasingly vociferous criticism.

Lamé’s announcement earlier this month that she’s stepping down after eight years in the job (she officially departs on Thursday) has reignited rather than resolved that debate. Intended as a unifying figure for the capital, bringing together politicians and police, bug-eyed ravers and overnight carers alike, the Night Czar has instead become wildly divisive: a lightning rod for wider debates around night-time culture and commerce.

As such, Lamé’s departure has implications for much more than just her own career, and for music fans well beyond the M25. As the UK’s first Night Czar – Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol have since appointed their own Night Time Economy Advisors – Lamé’s tenure has been a bold experiment in the oversight and support afforded by politicians to Britain’s clubs, pubs and gig venues. Almost a decade later, it’s still not entirely clear whether that experiment has worked, or what happens next.

https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/black-sky-thinking/amy-lame-night-czar-night-time-economy/