I was a council estate kid who quit school with no GCSEs to work in a slaughterhouse – now I run a music empire

A MAN who grew up on a council estate and left school with no GCSEs has revealed how he's since built an entertainment empire and now works with some of the biggest names in music.

James Dean, 39, from Bretby, Burton Upon Trent, left school at the age of 16 as a self-confessed "rebel" with a passion for music.

Fast forward 23 years, he's now founded or been at the heart of a whopping 21 music festivals and has booked some of the biggest acts in the music industry - including Steps, S Club 7, UB40, Boyzlife, and Example.

But it hasn't always been an easy road for music fanatic James, who had a "tough" childhood growing up.

Speaking exclusively to Fabulous Digital, he explains: "We had little to no money for food.

"My mum had three jobs...this experience was absolutely the driver for me to turn life around for me and my family."

James, who has ADHD and says he was "misunderstood" lot of the time, left school without any GCSES at 16.

"I wasn’t the worst kid in the class but I was very disruptive," he admits.

FABULOUS BINGO: Get a £20 bonus & 30 free spins when you spend £10 today

"When I had my adult ADHD diagnosis and look back on my school reports, I can see a lot of my short attention span was because of the Attention Deficit Disorder and not because I was a naughty kid.

"I started skipping school to go to work and wash cars so we could have food and nice things."

Over the years, James, who has a daughter named Reeva, took on whatever job he could to make ends meet.

"I worked in a slaughterhouse sweeping up," he says.

"I was also a block paver, a welder, a car cleaner, a fabricator - literally anyone that would take me I would give whatever it was they needed doing a go."

But deep down, the 39-year-old always knew that he wanted to work in the music industry.

"From the age of eight I remember the feeling music gave me," he recalls.

"Music has this fantastic ability to take you to places and lift your mood and to this day I listen to music every day.

"Once I realised I could play music and get paid for it, with the help of my granddad, I cobbled together a ropy disco set up and started doing school and Scouts discos and the odd birthday party.

"I then started work at a nightclub at age 14 collecting glasses and stayed there for 15 years working my way up to being the Managing Director.

I wasn’t the worst kid in the class but I was very disruptive

James Dean 39, from Bretby, Burton Upon Trent

"I loved music so much I asked Our Price records to give me a job and they wouldn’t, so I told them I would volunteer.

"So I volunteered during the week for Our Price records, in the evenings I worked for another record shop called Icon Records and then at the weekend I collected glasses at the club so I could listen to the DJs.

"Sleep was non-existent in those days but I loved every second of it."

Eager to get his big break, James, who has now been a DJ for 27 years and even owns his own helicopter, sent out thousands of mix tapes and gave DJs his tapes and CDs.

But when that big break never came, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

"I put on my own parties in a pub car park,"; he explains.

"Fast forward five years and many small shows later, I quickly realised I needed some form of qualification to host bigger events.

"So after leaving school early, I decided to go back and I studied a degree in Festival Management and Hospitality at Loughborough University."

Then, in 2012, James put his first festival together.

"It was a small dance festival called Xstatic Summer Festival," he explains.

"That then progressed into 16 festivals across the UK and Europe - and I was booking everyone from Calvin Harris to Bootleg Beatles and Monster Trucks!"