Pod Insights The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett E12: Sacha Lord's Diary - The King of Nightlife About this episode In this chapter I invite Sacha Lord onto the podcast to share his diary. From the halcyon days at Manchester's famed Hacienda, to building the iconic Warehouse Project & Parklife, Sacha is a true party mastermind, and as you can imagine, he's got a lot of stories to tell from along the way..
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Transcript 10,615 words · 2 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Steven Bartlett? Hello. In chapter 11, I promised you one hell of a guest for chapter 12, and I have delivered. This week, I sit down with the infamous Sasha Lord. He is the man behind some of the biggest events in Manchester and beyond. He's created era-defining events such as Warehouse Project, the UK's biggest metropolitan festival in Parklife, and other European events like Croatia's famed Hideout Festival. He is the king of nightlife. He started out putting on his first events at Manchester's famous Tassier Enda before moving to reopen Sankies. After throwing a few warehouse parties, he and his business partner Sam decided to put everything on the line and launch the world-famous Warehouse Project.
0:41 Steven Bartlett? That first season, they sold 100,000 tickets, and the rest is history. A born entrepreneur, a party mastermind, and a man of the people. Without further ado, this is chapter 12. I'm Steve Bartlett, and this is the Diary of a CEO. I hope nobody is listening, but if you are, then please keep this to yourself.
1:14 Steven Bartlett? Thank you so much for joining me, Sasha. It's honestly a bit of an honour. I think round our office, you're a little bit of a celebrity as well, because this crowd here, they go to all of your events. I've also attended many of your events. I've been to Parklife probably about three times since I've lived, in the five years that I've lived here. I've been to Warehouse Project on multiple occasions as well. Warehouse Project was my first-ever experience of a proper, good rave, I'd say. Yeah. I don't know if that's a sort of a negative word, but it was my first immersive party experience I had in my life, so I thank you for that. What I want to do, and what I often do when I first meet someone, in order to help sort
1:58 Steven Bartlett? of hit those key moments and understand your story, is set you a bit of a challenge. And that's, what I want to do is give you 30 seconds Oh, God. ...to introduce yourself and to tell your life story. And what I've found useful about this challenge is it helps to hit key moments in your life that you think are sort of poignant as such. Okay. Are you up for it? Yep. Cool. So let me just put my timer on. 30 seconds.
2:24 Steven Bartlett? Right. Ready when you are.
2:27 Speaker 01 Okay, go. So, born in Manchester, went to a good school, did well at my GCSEs, discovered the hacienda, fucked up big time on my A-levels because I was partying. Then I realised, actually, that's what I wanted to do for a living, had no qualifications. Put a few student nights on, that built up into nightclub course, thank you so, which became warehouse project, which came part-life, and then the rest is history.
2:51 Steven Bartlett? Amazing, you did that in 23 seconds.
2:53 Speaker 01 That's good.
2:54 Steven Bartlett? So, you touched on your early years there.
2:56 Speaker 01 Yes.
2:56 Steven Bartlett? And your school years. So you were a good student that turned bad.
3:00 Speaker 01 I was, I was, I was a model geek.
3:02 Steven Bartlett? Really?
3:03 Speaker 01 So, I was born in Old Chingham, went to Old Chingham Prep. Um, everybody that went to, it was like a sausage factory, everyone that went to Old Chingham Prep was supposed to go to Manchester Grammar.
3:12 Steven Bartlett? Yeah.
3:13 Speaker 01 Um, so, you know, I was forced through the education system, quite rightly by my parents, they wanted me to have a good education. Um, but that's where we differed, because I didn't enjoy education. You know, I did it, did really well at my GCSEs, but I never, it's really weird, and I was asked this question actually last week, when I was at school, I knew, and this isn't cocky or arrogant, but I knew I was going to do alright for myself, but I didn't know how I was going to do it.
3:45 Steven Bartlett? It's really interesting.
3:46 Speaker 01 So, everybody in my class at Manchester Grammar who wanted to go to Oxford or Cambridge and become doctors, or accountants, or lawyers, and they succeeded in that, I had absolutely no interest whatsoever in doing that. And I didn't know, I had, I had passions. I was very fortunate to be growing up around the whole Manchester explosion, so that's the period of like the Roses and the Mondays and New Order and all those bands. So, there was, there was a lot of music happenings at the time in Manchester. And I think I just got on the crest of a wave and went with that. But there was no, I didn't know what I was going to do, I used to panic about it.
4:28 Steven Bartlett? Really?
4:29 Speaker 01 Yeah.
4:29 Steven Bartlett? But that's interesting, so you had that self, I refer to it as self-belief, that you sort of knew you were going to be something, you were going to do something good, right? Is that?
4:37 Speaker 01 Yeah, I didn't, and again, I don't want to be cocky, but I never envisaged myself. Struggling in later life. I always envisaged myself going on nice holidays and doing what I wanted and it was the opposite was never an option.
4:53 Steven Bartlett? I honestly just got goosebumps because I've in previous chapters of this podcast, I've said the same thing. So I was a kid that
5:01 Steven Bartlett? was I was predicted by Plymouth School to get 12 A stars at GCSE and I was a geek, right? But then by several years down the line, I was in bottom sets for everything and I was failing on everything. But that sixteen year old kid was convinced that he wouldn't need school anyway. And hearing you say that kind of resonated with me because I didn't know how, there was no case study looking forward as to how that was going to play out. But I don't and that's why, you know, that was.
5:28 Speaker 01 Well, in the eye, I mean, it sounds very similar. In the eyes of the school, I was most definitely a failure.
5:35 Speaker 01 I remember the the yearbook when it had everybody's name and which university they went to and there was just a space next to mine. It was blank.
5:42 Steven Bartlett? Really?
5:42 Speaker 01 Almost an embarrassment, but now the school invited me back to give a talk and my face is on the Hall of Fame, which is great.
5:50 Steven Bartlett? Crazy.
5:51 Speaker 01 Alongside Ben Kingsley, who played Gandhi. It's just bizarre. Yeah.
5:56 Steven Bartlett? And how did your parents feel when you you started to flunk a little bit in school?
6:01 Speaker 01 Well, it actually coincided with them separating, getting divorced. Yeah, so. Which wasn't anything to do with me flunking, by the way. I was I was already on that pathway.
6:14 Speaker 01 But yeah, no, I think they were pretty, they never said it, but they must have been pissed off because it wasn't a cheap school to go to.
6:22 Speaker 01 You know, I think there were there were times when they found it hard to to pay for the fees to go through the school. So. You know, there's a bit of guilt there, but I think my mum's pretty proud now.
6:32 Steven Bartlett? And you and you cited sort of a hacienda as being one of the reasons, and you have done an interview, is one of the reasons why you, school became sort of a second priority almost, I guess.
6:42 Speaker 01 Well, yeah, so my only interest at school was art. That was my only interest. And I think it's because, I think it's for several reasons, I actually did like art, contemporary art. But also it gave me the flexibility because nobody else liked art. They were all too academic. So I was in the art halls by myself, which gave me the flexibility to skive. And it gave him the flexibility to hang around McDonald's driving down the road and hang around the gates at the girls' school there. So that was that was my my niche. Um, and I had an art and at the time I was, I dressed like a geek. You know, if you if I said, if I gave you a pencil and I was even said, draw a school geek.
7:26 Speaker 01 That was me, you know, the little box, black briefcase with with those gold, um, you know, the little numbers, the three numbers with the locks on them. So that was it. And I had this teacher called Mr. McGuinness, Stephen McGuinness. And he just said to me, look, you're conforming too much. And I remember the conversation. He said, why are you wearing that stiff jacket? You know, just just get rid of it. Get rid of that briefcase. You know, why are you conforming like the rest of the boys? And then literally overnight I changed because I was thinking about this. I thought, why am I conforming like everyone else? You know, I don't want to be like everybody else. Um, and then it was so bizarre, I caught him in the hacienda.
8:08 Steven Bartlett? You're joking.
8:09 Speaker 01 Now, which was must have been the lowest point of his life as a teacher, seeing one of his pupils in the hacienda. But we actually, we had a good laugh that night and it was, you know, it was the start of something.
8:22 Steven Bartlett? What is the for anybody that doesn't know, what is the and the hacienda was before my years as well. So I, you know, in my mind, the hacienda is this, it's almost like folklore. I hear about it all the time, but I've never I've never experienced it. What was the hacienda?
8:36 Speaker 01 So, um, everybody perceives the hacienda to be a hugely successful club that was packed every single night to open its doors. And in fact, that's not the case at all. It had a very good run for maybe three, four years. That was it. Um, it struggled consistently for money. It had a lot of major errors with with the gangs and things like that. But during that period, um, and the explosion of acid house, the world was looking at the hacienda and something very special went on within those four walls that's.
9:09 Speaker 01 None that a small, select number of people understood what was going on there. Um, and you, you've got to remember this was the whole Thatcher period and Manchester was a pretty pissed off, depressed, um, grey city to live in at the time. And then there came this music and with the music came ecstasy. And there was an explosion there. It was almost a release. It was like anarchy under this one roof.
9:40 Steven Bartlett? Wow.
9:41 Speaker 01 And, um, I, you know, the police didn't know what was going on. They didn't have a clue. It's like, what? You know, why are 2000 people converging there? Uh, and what is that dance that they're doing? Um, and yeah, it was weird. I mean, the first time I went there was in 89.
10:00 Steven Bartlett? How old were you?
10:00 Speaker 01 I was 17.
10:01 Steven Bartlett? Right.
10:02 Speaker 01 And I went with a friend of mine called Peter Armstead, who's now a vicar.
10:06 Steven Bartlett? You're joking.
10:07 Speaker 01 And, um, we walked in and actually the first time we tried to get in, we got knocked back.
10:14 Steven Bartlett? Right.
10:14 Speaker 01 Because I'd heard about the Hasyan and how cool it was. So I borrowed my dad's suit, shirt and tie, thinking that was the look. Got to the door and the door lads were like, listen dickheads, crack on the edge of it, you know? So I revisited the following week in just the T-shirts and jeans, got in. And what we saw blew us away. It was like, what's that dance they're doing? What is that?
10:36 Steven Bartlett? What was the dance?
10:37 Speaker 01 Well, there's no point in doing it now because you were literally throwing your arm in the air consistently. It was an acid house dance.
10:43 Steven Bartlett? Got you.
10:44 Speaker 01 Um.
10:44 Steven Bartlett? I know, I still see it today, yeah.
10:46 Speaker 01 And it was the first time I'd ever seen, all the other clubs in Manchester were playing records that would be introduced by the DJ, who, you know, would say, and now, you know, we're going to play, uh, you know, Happy Mondays track on your track or whatever. And, and then you'd hear it and then he might announce. I don't know, lost orders at the bar.
11:06 Steven Bartlett? He kept interrupting.
11:07 Speaker 01 Yeah.
11:07 Steven Bartlett? Yeah, yeah.
11:08 Speaker 01 And then I walked through the doors and that's this time the customers were praying to the DJ. So the DJ was playing the records, but the DJ was possibly more important than the records. And I'd never seen this before. He was mixing it and it is like, this is something really, really special. Um, and the interaction between the customer and the DJ. Well, we still see it now. Um, but yeah, it was, we didn't realise until six months later that everybody was on ecstasy. You know, we were just two kids from Manchester Grammar walking around thinking this is great. Can't wait till Monday to tell everyone.
11:44 Steven Bartlett? So that, so that, that experience at Hacienda sort of changed your, it distracted you in some ways from the academic side of your life and then?
11:52 Speaker 01 Yeah, I, I wanted to be different at that point. Something, something snapped in my head. And I remember even up until that day, it was always cool to, and this is the stupid things that stick in my head. It was always seen as cool to sit on the backseat in the bus.
12:08 Steven Bartlett? Yeah.
12:08 Speaker 01 I don't know why. I don't know who made that rule up. But actually, when I was getting the school bus after that, I don't, I don't want to be like everybody else who wants to sit on the backseat and think I'm cool. Do you know what? I might stand up for this journey. I did, you know, it was, it just said you can do whatever you want to do and be whatever you want to be.
12:27 Steven Bartlett? So at eighteen, you were in, um, did you go to university?
12:30 Speaker 01 No.
12:30 Steven Bartlett? You didn't, did you? No.
12:31 Speaker 01 No.
12:31 Steven Bartlett? Um, um, what was your, upon leaving school, what was your, your sort of first job then?
12:37 Speaker 01 First job, I worked in a clothes shop in Old Chingham called Flannels.
12:42 Steven Bartlett? Right. Oh, yeah. Flannels.
12:43 Speaker 01 And it was the first store and I've got quite a few flowers now. And then on a, so I did that Monday through to Saturday and on the Sundays through a market in Liverpool called Stanley dot market.
12:52 Steven Bartlett? Right.
12:53 Speaker 01 Selling leather jackets.
12:54 Steven Bartlett? And at your GCSEs, um, or equivalent, what, what was your, how did you do?
12:59 Speaker 01 Very well.
13:00 Steven Bartlett? Very well.
13:00 Speaker 01 Yeah, straight A's.
13:01 Steven Bartlett? And then what exams came after that? Was it?
13:03 Speaker 01 A levels.
13:04 Steven Bartlett? A levels?
13:04 Speaker 01 Yeah, and um I originally wanted to do art, English and politics.
13:11 Steven Bartlett? Right.
13:11 Speaker 01 Um after four months, the um politics teacher said, listen, just forget this, you don't know what you're doing. So I was like, all right, and I went down to two A levels, really didn't enjoy English at all. Um and actually, although I loved art, I only got a U at art because I didn't do the coursework.
13:29 Steven Bartlett? Right, got you.
13:30 Speaker 01 I loved the painting.
13:31 Steven Bartlett? Yeah, but just.
13:32 Speaker 01 I didn't like the write-up.
13:33 Steven Bartlett? Hmm.
13:33 Speaker 01 Um no, I'd love reading about Matisse or Van Gogh or anyone like that, but I don't want to start writing books about them.
13:40 Steven Bartlett? Right, and and so you you leave your A levels with bad grades, terrible grades.
13:45 Speaker 01 Yeah.
13:45 Steven Bartlett? Um you go and do normal um normal jobs in the market stores in Eltrington locally. Um how did that go from there to getting involved in the sort of ni- life entertainment scene?
13:59 Speaker 01 Well, this was another thing, so a- another possible life-changing moment. The people who I was serving at Flannels were all very successful people. Um and I remember clearly they used to turn up outside the shop that had a glass frontage in in Ferraris or Bentleys. And I used to, I'd be sat there measuring the trousers, I can do turn-ups on trousers, by the way. So or your inside leg, and I'd be sat there measuring them, thinking to myself. And you know, bear in mind, we're talking about nineteen ninety, so it'd be a lot more expensive now. But I'd be thinking, how on earth can somebody not battering eyelids, spending three hundred pounds on a suit?
14:44 Speaker 01 You know, I was just, I was earning a hundred and twenty pounds a week at the time, and I was thinking, how is that physically possible? And then I was thinking to myself, do you know what, if I had that money, I'd be really sensible and I wouldn't spend three hundred pounds on a suit. Actually, that's a lot of rubber.
15:02 Steven Bartlett? It tends to be the way.
15:03 Speaker 01 Yeah, but um.
15:06 Speaker 01 So yeah, again, it made me quite um.
15:10 Steven Bartlett? Did it make you want nice things?
15:11 Speaker 01 Yes.
15:12 Steven Bartlett? And have you always wanted nice things?
15:13 Speaker 01 Always.
15:14 Steven Bartlett? Yeah.
15:14 Speaker 01 Yeah.
15:14 Steven Bartlett? And um now that you have money, was there any sort of, how did it feel to get money? From from being a young guy just like me that didn't have it to then getting it, how did that feel? And what what does what role does money play in your life?
15:30 Speaker 01 So I think um.
15:33 Speaker 01 Well, first I went through when I when I started my student nights off. I went through a terrible period of um, you know, I'd earn a thousand pounds a week or something. But then I'd spend the eleven hundred pounds a week. And then um I went through a period of two years when I was starting off. Where I wasn't paying my credit cards, I wasn't paying my water bills, I wasn't paying my heating bills. Bailey's used to turn up and it was a nightmare and you know, I'd have to move. I was renting at the time, so I'd moved and he couldn't find me and there was all this dodging the bullets and stuff. And then there was a moment where I thought, right, well, it's time to grow up.
16:11 Steven Bartlett? Right.
16:11 Speaker 01 Um, but I think when you become successful and you reach that point where you no longer have to worry about how much, you know, I don't have to, when I go to a restaurant, I don't have to have a look at the the prices on the menu. Or I'm fortunate enough if I see clothes and I don't have to look at the the price of the clothes and um. Holidays, I can go where I want. So but there's always annoyingly, when you think you've got to the top of the mountain, you never are. There's always something much higher and there's always some, you know, there's always something to strive for and achieve for. And I think
16:51 Speaker 01 I think um when you do succeed, you notice a change in friends as well, which isn't particularly very nice.
16:58 Steven Bartlett? What what's the change you've noticed in friends? So you're talking about friends that were there when you were?
17:02 Speaker 01 The friend, the people who were there at the outset.
17:05 Steven Bartlett? Okay.
17:05 Speaker 01 Are my true friends, you know, they're my they're my real friends and they don't care if I've got. Five P to my name, they don't care if I've got five millions to my name, they're my friends. But when people now see what you do, or they've heard your name, or they see what you drive, you get these these people, these hangars on and it's just, I reached a point last year where I said, do you know what? I'm getting rid of it, I'm getting rid of everybody, I'm cutting them off. I changed my number at home. And I must, I think I've got six friends, maybe seven. Who are my true friends and they're the people I'll speak to at home, on the home phone.
17:45 Steven Bartlett? Do you think what you do is quite, and being an entrepreneur in general is quite a lonely pursuit?
17:52 Speaker 01 Very lonely.
17:52 Steven Bartlett? Yeah, and and why is that? And talk to me about the sort of loneliness, the lonely side of it.
17:59 Speaker 01 It comes, it comes with a lot of pressure. You know, and I walks, you've you've kind of just shown me around your offices here and I've seen how many staff you've got and it's a phenomenal success.
18:12 Speaker 01 And anybody, the normal person on the street will walk in and go, wow, Stephen, you're doing so well, this is incredible. But actually, I know, although you may not admit it, that you have this overhead at the back of your mind and you feel responsible to pay all these people's wages. And if you don't pay all these people's wages, they can't eat or they can't pay their rent. So, you know, the more you succeed, the more pressure does come on your shoulders.
18:38 Steven Bartlett? And how have you been dealing with that pressure? Because so just gonna jump back a sec. So you're you're this young guy seeing these Ferraris pull up at this clothing shop. You've now, if we go forward to the point where you're starting to to run these, you know, big, big events, the the events you throw in this city and across the country, to be completely honest, and you know, in parts of Europe as well, are tremendous events that when I look at what park life is, I I was saying it earlier on to one of one of my members of the team. I just can't imagine the amount of like logistics and the amount of people involved in that and the amount of people that have to be paid. And you have to make sure people arrive there, all of those things. And throwing little events is a fucking headache for me.
19:23 Steven Bartlett? So throwing an event of that scale, for me, is just something I would never like want to do. Because of the, just the moving parts and you know, the pressure. So how is, how is that for you, throwing a? World renowned event like sort of Parklife in terms of pressure.
19:43 Speaker 01 Well, you know, I I've got a great business partner, Sam.
19:47 Steven Bartlett? Sam, yeah.
19:48 Speaker 01 And, you know, we bounce off each other. We're chalk and cheese. You know, Sam and I will probably find it hard to sit and have a pint and have a full conversation because we're, you know, we are chalk and cheese, but it works.
20:03 Speaker 01 Sam deals with the more the creative and obviously the artist booking and I'm more logistics. Dealing with the council, the authorities. So it goes, it goes hand in hand, but the, I mean, the pressure is unbearable.
20:20 Steven Bartlett? Is it?
20:21 Speaker 01 Yeah.
20:21 Steven Bartlett? No one ever sees that, no?
20:23 Speaker 01 No one ever sees that.
20:24 Steven Bartlett? From, from the outside looking in, it looks like you guys just have an idea and then it happens. That's the perception, right? Even when I read your story and the interviews I've read, it was you had an idea to reopen Sankey Soap and, and it happened. You had the idea for Parklife and it happened. That's the only story I read. So what, what I'm interested in is, I know those things don't just happen.
20:48 Speaker 01 Well, I mean, you read that I had an idea to reopen Sankey Soap and it did, it did reopen, but what you don't read is the night before the Salford gangs petrol bombed the nightclub.
21:02 Steven Bartlett? Really?
21:02 Speaker 01 Yeah, you know, it was, it was bad times then, but I think we come up, we do come up with these ideas. We've got, we've got a phenomenal team around us that we've created as we've, as we've grown and they've also grown.
21:18 Speaker 01 So, you know, we can say, right, we want to do this. And then sometimes it's, it's an impossible idea that we come up with, but the team managed to resolve it. And I think certainly, you know.
21:33 Speaker 01 When things are amazing, when you put an, when you put an event on. And it's an incredible event.
21:38 Steven Bartlett? Yeah.
21:39 Speaker 01 And the press all brown nosing you. There's nothing better.
21:42 Steven Bartlett? Yeah.
21:43 Speaker 01 Forget the money side, it's, you know, it's, it's incredible. But then there's the other side, that when something goes tits up. And all of a sudden, for a two, three week period, you missed a bad guy. Then that's a pretty lonely period.
21:58 Steven Bartlett? Talk to me about tits up.
22:00 Speaker 01 Well, two thousand and thirteen, we had, um, a guy called Nick Bonney. Who came to Warehouse Project when he was at Victoria Warehouse. And, um, we didn't know at the time, but he'd been taking drugs all day long. And he became very poorly at the Warehouse Project and, uh, our ambulance took him to hospital. And he didn't make it. Um, he didn't survive sadly, so, um, normal promoters, because it, it's not a common occurrence, but it happens in every single city. Um, but I wanted to take the bull by the horns and I wanted to educate my customers and other customers to say, look.
22:38 Speaker 01 I know you're gonna party, but don't act reckless, um, because you don't really know what you're doing or what you're taking. And this can happen. So I called a press conference, against the advice of our PR company, called a press conference, hell, it's at the Malmezon. And Sam and I were sat there with all these cameras pointing at us and, and all the radio stations had the little mobile phones in front of us. And my opening gambit was, now, I thanked people for coming, um, and I just wanted them to help me spread the word. Whether it's on the TV, whether it's on the radio, whether it was in print and try and educate, um, the clubbers who, who are going out these days. And of course, that didn't happen.
23:19 Steven Bartlett? Of course.
23:20 Speaker 01 They completely demonized us. Um, and I remember the front page of the Manchester Dream News the day afterwards, um. What was it now? Super club death boss speaks out or something like that or death club super boss speaks out. And it was on all those sandwich boards around town. And I just, people didn't realise that when you go through something like that, it actually affects you really badly.
23:48 Speaker 01 You know, you do question, well, and Sam and I questioned, we debated whether to carry on the warehouse project season that season because somebody who came to our events didn't make it. And if we hadn't put that event on, would he, would Nick still be alive to this day? The answer that I came up with was no, because he would have gone to another party anyway. Where perhaps at least he had a fighting chance with us because we had paramedics and we had the ambulance. Whereas if he had been somewhere else, then you know, he would, at least he wouldn't have been given that, that chance. So yeah, negatives do happen.
24:25 Steven Bartlett? Did you, did you get a chance to speak to his family or to anybody close to him at all?
24:28 Speaker 01 No, um, no, I didn't do. When, um, through the press we spoke, but that was it. But there was nothing negative from his family at all.
24:42 Speaker 01 In fact, from memory, I think his mum was a drugs worker, so she, she understood.
24:48 Speaker 01 But yeah, not so pleasant, not a pleasant few weeks.
24:52 Steven Bartlett? I can imagine, I can't even imagine the, what that's like to, to deal with. And I guess it's that, as you, I can see there, you've, you've, you've done a little bit of soul searching to figure out whether, whether I guess you, I guess the question I'd ask myself is like, could I have done more? Is there, um, is it exactly the same? Like, is it worth continuing? But, you know, as you said, these things, these things happen in a, in a world where people party and it's.
25:18 Speaker 01 Correct. And do you know, the, the not annoying thing, because it has to be acknowledged, it happens. But because it was all over the press, worldwide, by the way, not locally.
25:31 Speaker 01 Warehouse project now has this stigma attached to it, to the average, but not our clubbers, but the average Joe on the streets.
25:38 Steven Bartlett? That doesn't come, yeah.
25:40 Speaker 01 Yeah, that doesn't come. They think a warehouse project, you know, it's just full of people that take loads of drugs and I'm not going to say there aren't drugs in there, um, because there are in every single dance venue in the country, but. You've been yourself, you know, it's a very happy experience in there.
25:55 Steven Bartlett? Um, no, it was amazing. Honestly, it was amazing. And it was, it honestly, I, I remember being there and genuinely having the thought that I didn't know places like this existed. I didn't know you could have an experience like this. Um, and I went back several, several times and I still go now. Um, uh, and it's moved over, it's moved over.
26:16 Speaker 01 Back at Store Street now.
26:17 Steven Bartlett? Yeah.
26:17 Speaker 01 Yeah.
26:17 Steven Bartlett? Um, oh, yes. So it's gone back into the tunnel, isn't it?
26:20 Speaker 01 Yes.
26:21 Steven Bartlett? Yeah. When I first went, it was over by Old Trafford.
26:23 Speaker 01 Which was the venue I just spoke about then. So that must have been 2012 slash 13.
26:28 Steven Bartlett? And so dealing with, dealing with that, that tragedy, um, how does, how do you carry on from there? Was, did Warehouse take some time out or did it?
26:36 Speaker 01 No, it didn't take any time out. In fact, um, I, I went on a mission and I, and I still do now. So, um, we do random drugs tests, um, back of house at Warehouse Project.
26:50 Steven Bartlett? Right.
26:50 Speaker 01 Um, I work very closely with the Loop Charity and, you know, we, we've got hundreds of thousands, which sounds pathetic when I've looked at the figures that you just showed me on your social media channels now, but we have, we have the ears of the 18 to 30, 18 to 23 clubbers in the, in the UK. And you look at what Warehouse Project does. So if I can feed a message out to say, I don't know, in Liverpool, there'd be these red tablets with a handbag on the front of them, they're lethal, avoid them. We do that. I'm not scared of doing that. I know other promoters or club owners who think, well, if you put a message out like that, you're selling these drugs in your venue and the authorities won't like it. That is, that's not the case actually. The authorities appreciate you doing that.
27:32 Steven Bartlett? Um, so talk about those moments and you, you referenced loneliness following those moments. Um, how do you, how do you, have you dealt with those tough moments in a personal way? What, what's your support system like? Is there an internal dialogue? Have you had therapy? Do you go and speak to somebody? Is it your family? What's the?
27:54 Speaker 01 I, I'm, um, No, I'm supposedly a bit like a hedgehog.
27:58 Steven Bartlett? Right.
27:59 Speaker 01 I just had to think it through myself.
28:00 Steven Bartlett? Mm hmm.
28:01 Speaker 01 Um, the gym helps me a lot.
28:03 Steven Bartlett? Mm hmm.
28:04 Speaker 01 So I'd, you know, I'd probably go five, six times a week.
28:07 Steven Bartlett? Right.
28:08 Speaker 01 You wouldn't think it looking at me.
28:09 Steven Bartlett? No, I do. I actually, you do actually look like you're a really good jogger.
28:12 Speaker 01 That to me is a period where, um, if you have a lot of tension.
28:16 Steven Bartlett? Mm.
28:17 Speaker 01 Go and punch a punch bag for thirty minutes.
28:19 Steven Bartlett? Mm hmm.
28:19 Speaker 01 You do feel better. If you jog, it's a good time to think.
28:24 Steven Bartlett? Your internal dialogue must be pretty good, though. So the, the voice that's talking back to you when you're thinking things through must be very, very good at sort of rationalizing things and not, not like self blaming or beating yourself up or worri- like worrying too much.
28:38 Speaker 01 Well, I write a lot of lists.
28:40 Steven Bartlett? Right.
28:40 Speaker 01 Um, there's nothing better than, if you think about things in your mind.
28:45 Steven Bartlett? Mm hmm.
28:45 Speaker 01 You'll start forgetting things, but if it's written down with a pencil in front of you.
28:49 Steven Bartlett? Yeah.
28:50 Speaker 01 Let's say you have five or six challenges to get through. You know, I go through it and then I cross those challenges off.
28:57 Steven Bartlett? Right.
28:57 Speaker 01 Um, and that's, that's the way I do it. I just look at everything on paper and try and, try and work it out.
29:04 Steven Bartlett? Right. And have, have, are you in a relationship?
29:06 Speaker 01 Yes.
29:07 Steven Bartlett? Married, single?
29:08 Speaker 01 No.
29:10 Speaker 01 I'm in, I'm in a, I've got a girlfriend.
29:12 Steven Bartlett? Oh, okay, okay. And how is, how is she found? Um, one of the things I always find really interesting, and this is again me soul searching for myself because I continually fail in relationships. I've gone from one failed relationship to another, to another, to another, to another. And I was, I was almost at one point thinking that um, it's impossible for me to have a good relationship whilst running a business. How have you found that process of being incredibly busy but trying to compromise when you have to?
29:36 Speaker 01 Well, I think it's, it's, um, I said this last week, actually. I, I am adamant. And there are many entrepreneurs who disagree with me, but I don't believe what they're telling me. Because you'd never know what goes on behind people's doors of the homes. But I think it is impossible. To throw your life into your work and at the same time, hand in hand, have a very successful personal relationship. I don't think that's possible.
30:03 Steven Bartlett? Hmm.
30:03 Speaker 01 I think you either decide to put all your efforts and time into one.
30:07 Steven Bartlett? Hmm.
30:07 Speaker 01 Or the other. You can't do two. You can't spin both plates. Um, and you know, I've been um seeing Sonal for eight months.
30:16 Steven Bartlett? Right.
30:17 Speaker 01 Um, and I think she kind of likes what I do for a living and I try and share um. You know, it's quite ex- people find, people from the outside find it exciting what I do. Obviously, I'm in it.
30:28 Steven Bartlett? But but the.
30:29 Speaker 01 It's a fucking nightmare.
30:30 Steven Bartlett? Yeah, that's what I.
30:31 Speaker 01 Yeah.
30:32 Steven Bartlett? That's what I mean, though, that they're finding it exciting, you're a successful guy, you go to the gym, very appealing proposition. But then when you become part of it, it's a different story because you're, you must be tremendously, you know, focused at times. You must have a lot on your mind. You must be quite distant, even when you're in the room with this person. Um, so the experience can't be as exciting and wonderful, right? Or am I wrong?
30:54 Speaker 01 No, um, so my breathing space is my holiday.
30:59 Steven Bartlett? Right.
30:59 Speaker 01 So we had an amazing holiday back in January, ten days, um, where I literally just switched off. That's it.
31:05 Steven Bartlett? Hmm.
31:05 Speaker 01 And I managed to do that for the first time in quite a long time. Um, and there's a couple of other holidays booked, you know, coming up. Um, but no, she, she understands that my laptop always has to be open. And if I'm being completely frank, hers is always open as well and she's always looking at when it's misguided or pretty little thing or Zara. And apparently, I, I don't understand why she's looking at the same websites every day, but apparently the clothing changes every day. And then tomorrow, ten, ten bags of clothes will arrive and then eleven go back. I don't get, I don't understand it. I'm old fashioned.
31:41 Steven Bartlett? And, and what is it about you that made you get here and other people that desire to have the life that you have? And this is a bit of a sort of a self diagnosis, I guess. What is it about Sasha that's made Sasha sit here being the success that he is? Versus someone else that has the desire but isn't sat where you are?
32:03 Speaker 01 Well, I think most definitely luck has played a massive part in um.
32:10 Speaker 01 You know where I am now, I think being in the right place at the right time. I always think as well.
32:16 Steven Bartlett? What was that right place?
32:18 Speaker 01 The hacienda.
32:19 Steven Bartlett? Okay, wow. As an inspiration?
32:21 Speaker 01 As an inspiration, yeah. And then not just there, you know, I do reference that a lot, but there have been several key moments throughout my life. For example, working at Flannels and seeing these people coming in and the nice cars and just it gave me a kick up the arse really to to go out and just grab it.
32:44 Speaker 01 But yeah, sorry, what's the question?
32:46 Steven Bartlett? Basically, like, I'm trying to figure out what it is that makes you successful. And I've read I read online in an interview that you did about your attention to detail and things like that and I guess being the person that protects the standard.
32:58 Speaker 01 Well, I think I don't like to use the word OCD.
33:02 Steven Bartlett? Right.
33:02 Speaker 01 Because I don't have real OCD, but I'm certainly, I like everything to be perfect. And if it's not perfect, it really pisses me off because it means you could do better.
33:14 Speaker 01 And the other thing is that I know so many people who work nine to five jobs, but actually have great ideas and they share their ideas with me, say, what do you think about this? I'm thinking of doing this. And they never actually do it. And I'll see them five years down the line later and they're still doing the same job that they hated when they spoke to me about the great idea. So I did an interview last week and, you know, they asked me about this and my recommendation was anybody that has a good idea, like yourself, you know, go and do it. Because it's not, by the way, because what you've here is absolutely amazing, but you're 25 and if everything fucks up tomorrow, okay, you'd be absolutely mortified, but you're 25. You know, the world's your oyster.
33:57 Speaker 01 You can go out and achieve whatever you need.
34:00 Steven Bartlett? Why do you think it is that people don't end up doing what they they dream to do?
34:05 Speaker 01 I think you can get. I understand people like living in the safety net. Um, of a nine to five job, knowing you're going to come out at the end of the month with X amount. Out of that X amount, you pay your mortgage or your rent, you bought your food, you know what your bills are and you've got that in your pocket. I think it's possibly the fear. But then I do, I question myself, this is going deep now. So I can be sat on Princess Parkway. I've left the office, I've had a ticket count, we've had a great day. I'm sat in my car, you know, I have, I have um, a car that sticks out, so.
34:42 Steven Bartlett? What car is it?
34:43 Speaker 01 Do I have to tell you?
34:44 Steven Bartlett? Hundred percent.
34:45 Speaker 01 A Ferrari.
34:45 Steven Bartlett? Oh, nice. So you finally got the Ferrari.
34:49 Speaker 01 So I'm sat there in this Ferrari and the bus is next to me.
34:54 Steven Bartlett? Right.
34:54 Speaker 01 And the people on the bus are looking at me and thinking, you bastard. But then I'm looking at those people on the bus, thinking, well, actually you're going home now. To your loved ones, you can have your dinner on the table at six thirty and you've left your work behind.
35:12 Steven Bartlett? Yeah.
35:13 Speaker 01 And you don't see your work again until nine o'clock tomorrow. So the evening's yours and the morning's yours and you can do what you want and you don't have any stress or worry. Because you're getting your pay packet at the end of the month. You may have the, the worries of paying the bills and things like that, but.
35:30 Speaker 01 Who's, who is, who's chosen the right path? Now, everybody's going to say, the guy sat in the Ferrari chose the right path.
35:39 Speaker 01 I don't know what the answer is, if I'm being honest.
35:41 Steven Bartlett? I've always thought that it was just subjective. I just think, I, I, I. I don't think entrepreneurship is for everybody.
35:48 Speaker 01 Yeah.
35:48 Steven Bartlett? Um, because I don't think some people would enjoy, because I enjoy the bullshit. We refer to it as such a negative thing. But I've almost got addicted to it. I've almost got addicted to the challenge and the, and the, and things being tough. And my tough days in hindsight are always my favourite ones. They're the ones where I, I, I stretched myself and I came outside of my comfort zone. I don't think everybody would enjoy that experience. I think that I'm a bit of a loner. In the same, you know, way that you've kind of described it being a lonely experience. I'm really good at spending all Saturdays sat at my desk on my own. Um, and I enjoy that.
36:22 Speaker 01 Yeah.
36:22 Steven Bartlett? And I think that's a bit weird. I think I've got a bit of a sickness in that regard. Do you know what I mean? Because surely I should want to go out and see my friends and see my family. No, I just want to sit on my computer and. So I just think it's a subjective thing.
36:34 Speaker 01 It is, but I think you'll you'll reach a stage, Stephen, when, because believes or not, I know you can't tell looking at me, but I am a bit older than you.
36:43 Steven Bartlett? Yeah, I know what you're gonna say.
36:46 Speaker 01 You will reach a stage, because you're in the aggressive stage at the moment, and you're building something fantastic.
36:53 Steven Bartlett? I know what you're gonna say, yeah.
36:54 Speaker 01 What's my gonna say?
36:54 Steven Bartlett? So I think what you're gonna say, and this is what I've been told before, where other things, I will I will want to, I won't be able to do what I do now, basically.
37:05 Speaker 01 Yes.
37:06 Steven Bartlett? And when I'm slightly older, and in some respects, eighteen year old Steve doesn't operate like twenty five year old Steve does. Eighteen year old Steve was the aggressive, the savage. Twenty five year old Steve's a little bit more weathered, he likes, you know, to to lay down a little bit more. But I'm still super aggressive, but not compared to eighteen year old Steve. So when I think about what thirty year old Steve will look like, I I hope that I'm not doing this, because I think that would be a very sad thing if I was still operating in the same way that I do now.
37:36 Speaker 01 Yeah.
37:36 Steven Bartlett? I think there's much more to life than.
37:38 Speaker 01 It'll come, and I also think, you know, what's happened to me, I don't know how it's happened. I can only think it's an age thing.
37:49 Speaker 01 But in the last two years, I've noticed now I spend half my time giving advice to people. So because of, you know, where I am, what's I've achieved, what I've been through, people are looking at me as almost an example. And they're asking me questions, and I really enjoy giving people my advice, whether it's right or wrong, I don't know.
38:13 Speaker 01 But yeah, I'm doing more of these interviews and more talks at universities. And I think people quite like the idea. That I achieved something by fucking up in the first place.
38:26 Steven Bartlett? Of course, yeah, because you're the underdog there.
38:28 Speaker 01 Yes.
38:28 Steven Bartlett? You know what I mean? And people have a very, they have like this, almost this picture of what a successful person, their life looks like, and it starts with being handed a silver spoon and then getting amazing grades and going to Oxford. And then, so anyone that shatters that perception is, they become super relatable, they become someone that is just like me.
38:46 Speaker 01 Yeah.
38:46 Steven Bartlett? And they become the, the role models. And I think that's exactly what a lot of people see in, see in you. And it's, I see it in you as well, you know? Um, just hearing your journey today, um, uh, there's been so many times where I thought, ah, that makes sense now because of my own experiences and my own perception of the world. On that point, if you were to give advice to somebody, and this person is you, when you were seven, sixteen years old, let's say.
39:12 Speaker 01 Yeah.
39:13 Steven Bartlett? And eighteen years old, neither, um, what would that advice have been?
39:19 Steven Bartlett? Let's say at sixteen years old.
39:22 Speaker 01 I think.
39:26 Speaker 01 You stumped me.
39:28 Steven Bartlett? This is perfectly.
39:28 Speaker 01 Do you know what? I wouldn't, I wouldn't have made many changes, I don't think. Because I was going to, I was actually going to say, I wouldn't have done this, I wouldn't have done that, where I'd made mistakes. But you'll know yourself, every time you make a mistake, you learn from that mistake and it actually improves you to move on. So.
39:51 Speaker 01 No, would I, would I have said to myself, go and do your A levels at sixteen, make sure you get your A levels? No.
39:59 Steven Bartlett? Would you say that to your own kid now?
40:01 Speaker 01 Well, I don't have any kids, but.
40:02 Steven Bartlett? If you wanted to have a kid.
40:03 Speaker 01 If, if I had a kid, no. I would, I would much rather my kids, or kids, had fun at school. Rather than, I mean, obviously I don't want them to completely flunk out and, you know.
40:14 Steven Bartlett? Yeah.
40:15 Speaker 01 But, you know, I would want them to have more fun than sit down and study all day long and then go home and then do homework all night long. Now go outside, kick a football around, just to have fun.
40:28 Steven Bartlett? If if life isn't about, because a lot of, when I didn't have money, I made the this the foolish mistake of thinking that that was really important. And I thought, I wrote in my diary when I was eighteen, I wanna be a millionaire before I'm twenty five, I want a Range Rover to be my first car, all these things. And I look back on my diary now, and I just think, what a terrible like goal to write for the next uh seven years of your life. And upon arriving at the point where um I have those things, um I've now started doing a bit of soul searching, I think, in myself and asking what. Okay, if if I'm not doing this for monetary gain, then why am I doing this? Why am I building a big business and and um why am I, you know, making the the money? What's the what's the point in it all? And as someone that's, you know, slightly wiser than I am, what's your answer to that?
41:12 Speaker 01 Well, I mean, look how many people um you're helping along the way. Look how many staff you've got here who are paying the bills because of you. Um. And you want to, you know, you went through really, you went through tough times, um we were speaking before, you know, when you were starting off. So you're proving to yourself that you can do it.
41:33 Steven Bartlett? Hmm.
41:34 Speaker 01 So you're just beating yourself, um you know, you're racing against yourself.
41:38 Steven Bartlett? Mm hmm.
41:38 Speaker 01 And I think that's that's important, that you always better yourself.
41:42 Steven Bartlett? And and is that is that for you, is that the fulfillment from this for you, that?
41:47 Speaker 01 I I there's nothing, there's nothing better than if I'm walking through Manchester or London and I see somebody who was at my school. And I don't have anything against those people, but they're they're now lawyers.
42:03 Steven Bartlett? Mm hmm.
42:04 Speaker 01 And they're wearing a really boring suits with a really shitty tie. And I just look at them and I just think that's great.
42:13 Speaker 01 You know, I'm so happy.
42:16 Speaker 01 And it's not, I think the freedom is important as well. Obviously, you're tied to this business. So I won't say it's a prison sentence, but you know, it's a big ball and chain. But if you want to just stick a tracksuit on now and run up and down the Enz Gate, you can do that.
42:38 Steven Bartlett? Yeah.
42:38 Speaker 01 And no one can say, Stephen, you're fired.
42:40 Steven Bartlett? Yeah.
42:41 Speaker 01 You know, just do what you want to do.
42:42 Steven Bartlett? Hmm.
42:43 Speaker 01 I don't suggest you do it, by the way, because you get some really weird looks.
42:46 Steven Bartlett? No, yeah, there's a couple of people in the office walking around in tracksuits and they're still here, so it's fine with our policy. Is, what are your sort of personal ambitions then? You've achieved so much and I think where you're at, people would, you know, this won't mean much to you, but people would do anything to be in a position where you're at. And you must get so bored of people saying things like, you're so proud of yourself, et cetera, et cetera. Because as you said, it's just a battle amongst yourself. You're not, you're not competing against another, you know, a competitor. You're battling Sasha every day. What is Sasha's next big battle then? And his next big sort of ambition?
43:23 Speaker 01 So, I mean, I'm really proud of my city, Manchester and Greater Manchester, you know, the ten boroughs. And I think,
43:32 Speaker 01 you know, I've worked for, my first night was July the 4th, 94. So this will be 24 years.
43:39 Steven Bartlett? I was two years old.
43:40 Speaker 01 Oh, I don't remember saying this, have you?
43:42 Steven Bartlett? I was one and a half, bloody hell.
43:44 Speaker 01 Um, so yeah, I think I've seen everything come and go in the city and I've seen the city develop in a very, very good way.
43:55 Speaker 01 Especially since the bomb, actually, that was a turning point for the city.
43:59 Speaker 01 So I'm talking about the IRA bomb, by the way.
44:02 Steven Bartlett? Oh, okay, right.
44:03 Speaker 01 So I would like to give back to the city, what the city has given me, because the city gave me lots of chances that other cities wouldn't. There are lots of other cities that would not allow somebody to put a rave on in a car park.
44:19 Steven Bartlett? Sure.
44:21 Speaker 01 You know, when I wanted to reopen Sanki Soap that had been open from 94 to 98, when it wasn't mine, the police shut it down because there was guns and there was all sorts going on, the drug dealing, and I wanted to reopen it. And I proved to the police I could do that. Most cities wouldn't allow that to happen. It's shut, it's staying shut. So we have a very, very forward-thinking council, Labour-run council in Manchester. Um, and they've always understood the importance of the night-time economy. And especially, and I'll reference it again, but looking back at the days of the Hacienda when the world was looking at us as the music leaders.
45:00 Speaker 01 Um, that's recognised how important it is for the city to, to understand and support night-time economy. And that's, that's been consistent throughout, even when councils have come and go and changed seats. Um, you know, that, that has been recognised. So I'd like to give back to the city what, what they've let me achieve.
45:18 Steven Bartlett? Um, I think you'd be a great ambassador for the city.
45:20 Speaker 01 Thank you.
45:21 Steven Bartlett? Speaking personally, because yeah, you've got a very sort of authentic relationship with the city and you, um. Uh, I don't think many people that, um, are, are sort of better placed to, uh, understand both sides of the, the spectrum. If you know what I mean, in terms of what the city needs, but also what the, the people that live within the city are looking for.
45:40 Speaker 01 Right.
45:41 Steven Bartlett? Um, so definitely have my support.
45:43 Speaker 01 Thank you, appreciate that.
45:44 Steven Bartlett? If you, I had another question, which I tend to, I tend to ask everybody I meet. It gives me a bit of a perspective on who your sort of idols are and such. If you had a dinner party and there is, uh, six seats, right? One of them's mine, because, uh, I'm, I'm cooking. The other one's yours. The other four seats for the dinner party, dead or alive, who would you, um, who would you be inviting to the table?
46:03 Speaker 01 David Bowie.
46:04 Steven Bartlett? Right, why?
46:05 Speaker 01 Oh, he's a fucking genius.
46:07 Steven Bartlett? Okay, fair enough.
46:07 Speaker 01 I mean, he, he, um, reinvented himself so many times, um. Against all the odds as well, by the way. Um.
46:19 Speaker 01 I think Prince.
46:20 Steven Bartlett? Nice.
46:21 Speaker 01 Would be there.
46:21 Steven Bartlett? Mm-hmm.
46:22 Speaker 01 Um.
46:25 Speaker 01 I mean, you're going to think this is absolutely pathetic now.
46:27 Steven Bartlett? Right.
46:28 Speaker 01 But I know we do have something in common.
46:30 Steven Bartlett? Right.
46:31 Speaker 01 Love him or hate him, Jose would be at the table.
46:33 Steven Bartlett? Mourinho?
46:34 Speaker 01 Yes.
46:35 Steven Bartlett? Oh, I love Mourinho.
46:36 Speaker 01 We have the same birthday.
46:37 Steven Bartlett? Are you, really?
46:38 Speaker 01 Yeah, and I've, I've met him twice actually.
46:40 Steven Bartlett? Have you?
46:40 Speaker 01 Yeah.
46:41 Steven Bartlett? What's he like?
46:42 Speaker 01 Not what you'd expect. The loveliest guy. Um, really nice, genuine guy. Although I had got his daughter guest list for the MTV Awards, so maybe it has something to do with that. Um.
46:53 Steven Bartlett? Bribery.
46:54 Speaker 01 So where are we? Bowie, Prince, Jose.
47:03 Speaker 01 Me, hmm, I've met her before, but maybe Grace Jones.
47:07 Steven Bartlett? Mm-hmm. Do you, do you, do you still, and this is a bit of a segue because I just crossed my mind when you, when you said about Prince and Pully. Um, do you still get the same excitement from putting on your events as you did when you started?
47:22 Speaker 01 No.
47:23 Steven Bartlett? You don't?
47:23 Speaker 01 No.
47:24 Steven Bartlett? How has it changed?
47:25 Speaker 01 Definitely not, but now that it's, um, it's a lot more serious because they're a lot, they're a lot bigger. You know, you can put, um, Parklife was 20,000 people when it started at Platt Fields, one day.
47:34 Steven Bartlett? Do you get anxiety in the lead up to the event?
47:36 Speaker 01 Very much so.
47:37 Steven Bartlett? Yeah.
47:38 Speaker 01 Yeah.
47:38 Steven Bartlett? And how do you deal with that? Is it just again, that sort of inner monologue, going to the gym?
47:41 Speaker 01 Going to the gym and week leading up to it, uh, red wine does appear.
47:45 Steven Bartlett? And you, and you must be thinking about everything that could possibly go wrong.
47:49 Speaker 01 Everything, yeah, everything. So during Parklife, um,
47:55 Speaker 01 you know, my, th- this is an example actually of how people think, and there's nothing wrong with this because people don't understand how it works and the intensity of it, but one of my, um, girlfriend's friends said, oh, we're looking forward to Parklife, we can hang out with you that weekend.
48:09 Steven Bartlett? And you must think.
48:10 Speaker 01 That's like, you know, I'm responsible for 85,000 people every day for two days.
48:18 Speaker 01 300 plus artists, you know, it, it is, there's literally a hospital on site. You know, there's 84 catering units, 13 stages of music, and you think I'm going to hang out with you for two days? Are you, are you mad? So for those two days, there's something called Event Control.
48:37 Steven Bartlett? Right.
48:37 Speaker 01 Um, which is a, uh, an arena that we set up where there's a wall of CCTV cameras watching everywhere throughout the park. And then everybody has their own desk or the statutory authorities. So there's a desk commanded by the police, NWS.
48:52 Steven Bartlett? Wow.
48:52 Speaker 01 Um, you know, the fire service, environmental health, security, my desk, and it's in the middle of the room, you have this huge map.
49:02 Speaker 01 And when something goes wrong, we all stand around it and it's like, here's the challenge, how do we overcome it?
49:06 Steven Bartlett? What's the worst thing that's ever gone wrong?
49:09 Speaker 01 Um, last year was, was, last year was a nightmare. So we had.
49:15 Speaker 01 Frank Ocean.
49:17 Steven Bartlett? I heard about this.
49:18 Speaker 01 Refusing to go on until something, until we'd resolved something. So he went on thirty eight minutes late.
49:25 Steven Bartlett? I heard about this on Twitter.
49:27 Speaker 01 Yeah, so he, he went on thirty eight minutes late until we resolved something for him.
49:32 Steven Bartlett? Right, I can't share what that was.
49:34 Speaker 01 Do you know what it's actually, it was something technical. I actually can't remember what it was. It was not him.
49:39 Steven Bartlett? Being a diva or anything.
49:40 Speaker 01 No, it was something technical and I get why he didn't want to go on, because it has to be perfect for him. He's, he's an artist.
49:47 Speaker 01 So because of that, he insisted still on doing the full set, which meant I'd be breaking the eleven o'clock curfew. So I had to think of something like, how do I explain to the head of the council here now? I want to go over the eleven o'clock curfew because I will get the bollocking of my lifetime. And I could be fined, they might not let me do this again next year.
50:15 Speaker 01 And then at, at exactly the same time, there was um, a tragedy where somebody had fallen on one of the MetroLink lanes in the city centre, nothing to do with Parklife.
50:29 Steven Bartlett? Right.
50:29 Speaker 01 So none of the trams were working.
50:31 Steven Bartlett? Yep.
50:32 Speaker 01 Um, the tram's not working. So at the same time, then I had twenty thousand people who had to walk back into Manchester.
50:42 Speaker 01 So out of that, I managed to convince the council that a staggered egress would be a lot better.
50:48 Steven Bartlett? Oh boy.
50:49 Speaker 01 Than actually kicking everyone out at the same time and twenty thousand people walking back into town, stagger the egress out and, and do that way.
50:59 Steven Bartlett? And that, in that moment, when Frank Ocean is, is, you know, he's not going to go on until this is fixed, this is your problem.
51:05 Speaker 01 Yeah.
51:05 Steven Bartlett? Right, this is your problem to deal with. The buck stops with you, presumably. And I, I imagine.
51:11 Speaker 01 Well, it, it stops with me and Sam and, and the team, but probably because I'm um, known on social media, I'm the one that gets the aggro from, you know, the customer if something goes wrong, they, they come for me.
51:27 Steven Bartlett? It's an immense amount of pressure, it really mustn't be a pleasant experience for you.
51:30 Speaker 01 It is when it's good though.
51:32 Steven Bartlett? Yeah, and I imagine when it's over.
51:33 Speaker 01 Yes, yeah, yeah.
51:36 Steven Bartlett? And what's the, what's the, what's the, the big vision then for Parklife? Where do you want to take it?
51:41 Speaker 01 It can't go any bigger. Um, Parklife will always remain in Manchester, is a question I get asked a lot. It's going nowhere. It's the biggest metropolitan festival in the country now, and I'm really proud of that. Proud Manchester has that.
51:55 Speaker 01 So in terms of Parklife, it's all about, the thing we can improve is the production. So we've got some really nice bits coming in this year.
52:02 Steven Bartlett? Excited.
52:03 Speaker 01 Yeah, some extra special stages that just look incredible.
52:08 Speaker 01 They're very costly. So Sam went to see Kendrick Lamar last week.
52:12 Steven Bartlett? Oh wow.
52:12 Speaker 01 And in London, actually, in the next day, he phoned me up. He's like, right, that's it, main stage, we're gonna have it exactly the same as Kendrick Lamar's stage. And I was like, that's gonna cost millions. So we've had to find a sort of a fine line between the two. To keep him happy and to keep the budget happy.
52:30 Speaker 01 But yeah, that's, that's how we can improve on it.
52:33 Steven Bartlett? Your personal life, you, you're, how old are you now? Forty?
52:36 Speaker 01 Six.
52:36 Steven Bartlett? Forty six. You look really good. You look about thirty. So I guess that's going to the gym every day.
52:41 Speaker 01 Healthy eating.
52:42 Steven Bartlett? Healthy.
52:44 Steven Bartlett? You look tanned as well, which is really good. That's probably been on a holiday at some point recently? Or is that just a natural?
52:50 Speaker 01 Well, holiday, but also the Sunbed Centre next to Waitrose in Alchingham.
52:54 Steven Bartlett? Nice. So this is all about honesty. I would have a bit of that. That's the depth I was looking for. Okay, and my last question for you then. As someone, again, that is significantly more wise than I am, and has been, especially within the Manchester scene, but in the business world longer than I have. What one piece of advice would you give to me as I continue on my own sort of personal journey? And to sort of young entrepreneurs that are like me, um, starting out?
53:22 Speaker 01 Um, I think just do exactly what you're doing now and whatever belief you've got is quite clearly working. And anybody around you will say, well, Stephen, I wouldn't do this. I wouldn't take on the 10 people because think of the wage bill and the overhead. Fuck them. Just do it. Because it's succeeding now. And, you know, cut out all those negative people. You know, I didn't have a great relationship with my dad, but he always used to say, if you hang around with shit, you'll end up in the shit. And it's true. If you hang around with negative people that want to pull you down and question everything you do, you'll, you'll be pulled down with them.
54:05 Steven Bartlett? It's a circle, I guess.
54:07 Speaker 01 Release yourself and just surround yourself by, as you have done here, you know, I've met your colleagues and your partners, just surround yourself by like minded people who want to go out and make a difference. That would be my advice.
54:21 Steven Bartlett? Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
54:23 Speaker 01 No, thank you.
54:23 Steven Bartlett? Um, I cannot wait for Parklife this year. I saw the lineup and the, the reaction from the team here kind of says it all. I'm of the group here, I'm probably the one that's less involved with, with music events because of time and I, I struggle to make the time for it. But the people that are the hardcore Parklife fans here have never been, and I'm not just saying this to bullshit to your face, they've never been more excited. And I did a bit of a test to the guys. I was like, have you guys all seen the lineup? They're like, oh my God, it's sick this year. So that's a tremendous credit for you. I want to thank you on behalf of Manchester as well, because you've brought a lot to Manchester, even out, you know, bringing the, having the festivals here and having the events here brings a lot to the wider economy as well. You've also been a tremendous advocate and
55:07 Steven Bartlett? for, for the city on a wider stage, but you're also approachable, which I find really fascinating. The fact that you even came and did this, the fact that you respond on Twitter, that it's you that's tweeting, I think is something that a lot of sort of leaders, and especially leaders within a city, could take notes from. So on behalf of Manchester, I just want to say thank you so much and keep inspiring us and keep helping put the city on the map. Because I think it's, it's going to help a lot of other young entrepreneurs to come try and follow in a similar footsteps.
55:35 Speaker 01 Thank you very much.
55:36 Steven Bartlett? Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you so much for listening to this chapter. It means the world to me. If you can, please do subscribe to the podcast and you'll be notified the minute it's released. I'm often quite bad at letting you know when it's out on my social channel, so this will give you a bit of an advantage. Also, if you have a couple of seconds, please do leave a review for me in the App Store. Everybody that reviews the podcast and tweets me, I promise you, if you leave your handle in the review, I will get in touch. Thanks and I'll see you next week.
Previous E11: I have a huge announcement to make... Next E13: Why We're All F*cked Up Page updated September 29, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
