The Deep End

At 22 I bought an 18,000 sq ft derelict Victorian swimming pool in Hillsborough, Sheffield, with a 5% deposit on a credit card and a £500k guarantee from my lodger, whose family owned pubs.

The Deep End opened in 1997. By 23 I was running a 600-capacity live music venue in one of the roughest parts of Sheffield, my first real business and the start of everything that followed.