Sacha Lord: The twenty eight most stressful days of my life

Sacha Lord’s new book, Tales From the Dancefloor, is full of raw honesty and a few hair raising moments in the life of the nightclub and festival entrepreneur.

Co-written by former Observer Music editor Luke Bainbridge, the book tracks the last three decades and the rise of the acid house scene in Manchester, from the Hacienda to Sacha’s takeover of Sankeys, and how The Warehouse Project and Parklife came together.

At a terrific TheBusinessDesk.com lunchtime event yesterday (18 April 2024) at Ducie Street Warehouse in Manchester city centre, Manchester’s Night Time Economy adviser and founder of music entertainment sensation The Warehouse Project and Parklife, opened up about his upbringing, being shot at, his achievements and the amazing stories behind his success.

Some of the stories he told are in the book, but a few weren’t.

We dug a bit deeper into the story of how he came to sell a 50 per cent stake in Parklife and The Warehouse Project, just a few days after he was reeling from the death of David Bowie in February 2016.

Along with Simon Moran of SJM, a shareholder in TWP and Parklife, he met with Denis Desmond from Live Nation who had made the approach, Lord suggested a number, and they accepted. However, it was on one condition, and they had to complete the deal in the next twenty eight days.

“That was twenty eight of the most stressful days of my life,” Lord says.

They had to do deals with neighbouring hotels, Network Rail and all the shareholders. In the end they got the deal over the line and could then get stuck in to the champagne that the lawyers rolled out.

If you missed out on this one, we’ve got more networking events in Manchester over the coming months.