Bobby Sanchez: Back to skool

In two years, Bobby Sanchez has turned a school-disco club night into a booming brand, with a record deal and a summer festival. Julia Stuart calls him into her office to explain

Bobby Sanchez sits down and plonks his chin wearily in his hand. He says he's exhausted. The 31-year-old's dark stubble is at odds with the school uniform he is wearing. On the table next to him is a ginger stick-on moustache. He peers at it, recognising it as that of the "deputy head". Next to it is a pair of goggles and a white coat. "They're the chemistry teacher's," he explains.

We are in the back room of a London nightclub. Outside, over 2,000 adults, mainly in their twenties and thirties, and all dressed in school uniform, are queuing to get in. "Lollipop men" are helping them cross the road. "Dr Martini", the headteacher, who is sporting an ill-fitting wig, a moustache that is dodgier than that of the deputy, and a three-piece suit that even Oxfam would reject as too naff, is threatening the hordes with detention. Not that they care. Soon, their stripy ties will be flying as they breakdance and twang their air guitars to the likes of "Eye of the Tiger". No doubt the evening will culminate in all-out snogging to "Careless Whispers".

When I first met a more fresh-faced Sanchez two years ago, he was giving his first ever newspaper interview. He had just set up a club night called School Disco that enforced a strict dress code of a school uniform, and played Eighties music. It was then attracting around 200 people. Now, such is the night's reputation, journalists from Japan and Brazil have been clammering to interview him. In the old days, when you rang School Disco, you'd get Sanchez immediately on the line. Now, you get seven options that include merchandise and corporate events.

Not only have the numbers of revellers increased more than tenfold, there are now monthly nights in Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol. This month saw the launch of a weekly club night in Ibiza, which is already attracting up to 1,000 punters. Another starts in Ayia Napa, Cyprus this Friday. There has been a five-album deal with Sony, and, on 13 July, the first School Disco festival will be held on Clapham Common, south London. School Fields, featuring Human League, ABC, Zippy and Bungle from Rainbow, and Sooty and Sweep, as well as school games and cabbage served up by dinner ladies, is expected to attract 20,000 uniform-wearing revellers. About 12,500 tickets have already been sold. No wonder Sanchez hasn't time for a shave.

"I never expected it to happen like this," he says, still stunned at it all. "Mick Jagger was in recently. I just freaked out. We started playing about five Rolling Stones records in a row. He was dressed normally, but we made him wear a tie. I asked him why he was here and he goes: "I just had to see it to believe it." It's a compliment to get a rock god like that coming along."

Sanchez, an affable chap, assumes his head-in-hand position again, then suddenly perks up. "Can you hear that?" he asks, sitting up. The DJ who has stepped in for Sanchez is playing "A Finger of Fudge", the song from the ad. "That stuff really takes you back," he says, smiling.

It is precisely that sort of appreciation for music from his childhood and its effects on the soul that got Sanchez where he is today – on his way to becoming a millionaire. After leaving university with a First in computer systems, Sanchez began DJ-ing around the capital's clubs. One night, in the summer of 1999, he decided to spice up the play list with Shakin' Steven's "This Ole House", followed by the Nolan's "In the Mood for Dancing". He promptly got the sack. "The club manager gave me my money and said: 'On yer bike, we don't want you here no more. No one plays Shakey'."

On the way home, Sanchez, who grew up in south London and has a Spanish, Asian and English heritage, passed his old school and peered through the gates. "What I was upset about was the fact that, back then, everyone I spoke to wasn't really enjoying their life. Everyone kept talking about the pressures of having to deal with a mortgage, maintain a relationship, work and fit in a life at the weekend. I wanted find a way of going back to our childhood. I knew one way was through music. If you play the theme tune to Grange Hill, for example, the memories flood back. When I played Shakey, it was one of the first records I bought and I felt like a kid again, and when you feel like a kid, you feel like having fun."

With a couple of friends, he hired a restaurant and advertised a school-disco night. "We made a complete loss," admits Sanchez. "About 70 people turned up, 50 of whom were our mates." The evening continued for three or four months until they decided to rent a larger venue, the SW1 club in London's Victoria, which they had to leave after several months when they arrived one night to find it boarded up by bailiffs, through no fault of their own. With no fixed venue, Sanchez and his chums set up a website, www.schooldisco.com, to announce the location week by week. "Every Monday we would be ringing clubs saying, can we bring a party of 400 people?" The club night finally arrived at its current Saturday venue, Po Na Na in Hammersmith, in April 2001. Three months later, they launched a weekly night at the Hanover Grand, on Fridays, which often attracts 1,000 "pupils". Teddy Sheringham was recently spotted there.

Last year also saw the release of the first School Disco compilation album, Best Days of Your Life, which went gold. Sanchez took particular pleasure in including "This Ole House". Ten thousand tickets for the School Disco New Year's Eve bash at London Arena sold out in 25 days. The second album, Spring Term, released in February this year, stayed at Number One for two weeks. The third, Summer Holiday, is out on 1 July. Gratifyingly, it includes the Nolan track that helped to get Sanchez fired. And it goes on. School Disco launches a dating service on their website in a few weeks' time. The company, that now employs a staff of almost 30, made around a million last year. Sanchez is director and there are four other sleeping partners.

Why does he think it has been so successful? "It's the music and the dressing up. Guys love to see women in school uniform, and girls like to see guys in tight shorts acting like kids. The interaction is good, the vibe's good. It's successful because it's fun. We want people to feel as though they're 12 again. Some guys who come up on stage end up breakdancing, head-spinning, taking their clothes off."

Sanchez, who is single, says his lifestyle hasn't changed. He still lives near Forest Hill, in south east London. He is adamant that School Disco will survive long after the current generation is too old to pogo. "As long as people go to school, there will always be a demand. In 10 years' time, hopefully, we'll still be here, but just playing different music. Who knows, we might be playing Pop Idol stuff," he says.