Nick Grimshaw and Myleene Klass show how to party all night and keep on top of your job

Nick Grimshaw made no lame excuses after staying up all night for Kate Moss’s party. Committed Londoners can dance till dawn and still be on top of their jobs the next day, says Phoebe Luckhurst

If you were called up to party with Kate Moss, you’d clear your schedule. You’d need a day to get ready, probably several doing the deed, and at least a whole one to recover afterwards. London’s favourite party girl is now 40, fabulous and staying put — and her best mates have stamina to match the cover girl’s.

Unfortunately, though, however much you matched Mossy shot for shot last week, you wouldn’t have the 36-hour recovery time to spare. Work waits for no one — not even Kate.

But that’s no need to turn down an invitation. If you think the work-play balance is an elusive equation, you need to take a long hard look at Nick Grimshaw. The Radio 1 DJ, London menswear style ambassador and dapper gent about town is one of Kate Moss’s inner circle — he arrived at her birthday dinner in Mayfair eatery 34 last week wielding two portrait-sized pictures for the birthday girl. Lunch ended at 6.30pm —12 hours before his Radio 1 breakfast show starts — but the night didn’t end there for Grimmy, who went to the Dorchester for the after-party and was spotted heading home by taxi at around 1.30am. That’s just five hours before the show starts.

Grimshaw has form: after last year’s Brit awards, he turned up at BBC HQ with mate Harry Styles in tow. The two proceeded to recount the antics of the previous evening — dubbing themselves the “straight-through crew”, since they hadn’t gone to bed in between party and work.

However, the DJ is unfailingly professional: he always makes it into work, and, frankly, the post-Brits show was arguably one of his most entertaining ever. He once commented to The Observer that “a hangover’s justified as long as it’s culturally relevant”. Like it or not, a hangover with Harry Styles definitely qualifies.

The straight-through crew is a varied but illustrious one: it includes Boris Johnson — who is frequently spotted hobnobbing at black-tie bashes, then in City Hall the next day — and ITV presenters Holly Willoughby and Peter Schofield, who presented a very hungover and very entertaining This Morning after winning their third National Television Award for the show. Getting home after a late night out that started at the opening of Kelly Brook’s restaurant Steam & Rye, Myleene Klass tweeted: “Finally home. School run tom ... AND I’m going to be teaching one of the lessons! #Coffee #COFFEE #reallife.”

But unlike Kate Moss’s birthday, this is one party normies are invited to; Londoners are evangelical about the benefits of balancing work and play.

One girl who works in broadcasting was interviewing for a much-wanted permanent contract that would replace her ambiguously temporary one; no reason to stop her going out the night before. She aced the interview and was offered the role.

Another, who works in publishing, fakes it to make it. “When I’m hungover and in the office I make up for my poor motor skills and hazy memory by wearing a fancy outfit and being super-friendly.”

An ad man advises: “If I come to work and I’m really hungover, I make sure I get in on time, send an email and cc lots of people in, then go for a sleep in the disabled cubicle of the men’s loos.”

The Evening Standard’s diarists advise advance preparation. “Ensure a reasonable canapé-to-champagne ratio. On arrival, get a drink and then locate where the trays are coming from; make it your home for the first half-hour before turning the focus to drinking.” Another rolls merrily with the hangovers by self-medicating with “a lot of coffee and a lot of headache pills” and remaining indefatigably upbeat.

For City boys, nights out are part of the job. “On Thursday nights, everybody goes to Abacus,” confides one banker. “You get a nod of approval if you’re generally thought of as the type who can take clients out but are in the office prompt the next morning to battle through. People get very smug about it.” At another bank, all the analysts have Mahiki cards — an electronic call-to-arms at about 8pm every Thursday evening stating simply, “analysts, Mahiki, GO”. En masse, they do; the next morning, they’re in the office before most of the capital has woken up.

So how do you go from dusk to desk without drinking yourself out of a job? Bravado goes a long way. “Generally, I’d say people like to pretend they drink more than they do,” comments the banker. “When I joined, people informed me I’d need to drink around here to fit in — but actually I’d say it’s quite a sober office.”

Other tricks include switching booze for water quite early on — reportedly a Grimshaw signature. Always eat before an event — don’t rely on canapés, especially if you’re vegetarian or exercising an otherwise restrictive Banuary diet — and drink plenty of water before you go to sleep. Shower when you get in: it saves time in the morning that you can use on a hearty breakfast (crucial).

Above all, find the comedy in the situation: everyone prefers an anecdote to a whinge. Cheers to that.

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