HE'S played live at Glastonbury festival, represented the UK at football and will be on BBC Radio 1xtra. He's also been in prison for drug offences and theft. Theone Coleman's life has been anything but straightforward.

To see the 23-year-old youth worker performing his music workshops today, it is hard to envisage how he had lived his life previously.

Growing up in Hayes, London, he found himself caught up in a world of drugs and crime from an early age.

By the age of 16, while working as a barber and making music with his brother to pass the time, he was selling crack cocaine on the streets for a friend. At 17, his mum moved to Bournemouth and Theone decided to follow her to try and get away from the life.

"It was a case of taking the boy out of the town but not the town out of the boy," says Theone.

At first, things in Bournemouth went well and he soon had a job at a call centre, earning decent money, but he began to mix with the wrong crowd again.

"I started selling weed for a bloke in Townsend because it was an easy way of making money and then I fell back into selling cocaine, because it was even better money."

Despite being one of the company's top sales people he was sacked for repeated lateness and moved in with the person he was selling drugs for.

"I came back to the house one day and all my music equipment had been stolen, so I packed up what was left of my belongings and hit the streets."

He went to the YMCA on Westover Road, staying there until he was caught smoking weed and chucked out.

"I realise now how much of an idiot I was and it frustrates me to think of how I used to be. By this time I was selling everything - pills, cocaine and weed - on the streets, but I was genuinely trying to get out of the drugs game."

The night that Theone will never forget was in July 2006 at the Opera House in Boscombe, where he was caught dealing in the club's toilets and charged with possession with intent.

"When the police asked me what happened I was just totally straight with them and told them everything. They were shocked but I just wanted to get it all out there."

By the time his court date came round, he had a new job, where again he excelled, winning several top sales awards.

"When I got to court the judge was impressed at how I had attempted to get myself sorted out and so he gave me a nine- month suspended sentence, rather than the three or four years he could have given me."

Theone moved in with a friend, was out of the drugs game and life was looking up. However, a relapse was to see him up in front of the judge again.

"It was just before pay day and I was a little bit short of cash. I was walking through Deben-hams and picked up an after- shave that looked good. I couldn't afford it so I just slipped it inside my suit and walked out - but the security caught me."

He was given the full nine-month prison term and served the majority of his sentence at Guys Marsh prison.

"In prison I tried to sort myself out and got a business qualification. I also got involved with a programme called Jail Guitar Doors, run by The Prince's Trust and set up by Billy Bragg to give people inside a chance to play a guitar."

Theone jumped at the chance to enjoy his first love of music and on release, after serving half his sentence, got involved with The Prince's Trust.

"I had mentors from the Trust who helped me out and drove me places, including to Glastonbury, where Billy Bragg invited me to play a song I'd created in prison. I was rubbish but I was up on stage in front of 3,000 people and they were all really supportive."

Along with his mentors, Theone decided that he wanted to help youngsters by offering them music as the release that he never had as a child and set up various workshops across Bournemouth.

"I loved music so much that I used to deal drugs to be able to afford to buy new equipment and I didn't want anyone else to have to take that route," he says.

Theone now runs music workshops at Townsend Youth Centre and the 896 Centre in Boscombe, taking all his own equipment to the centres for each session and recording with the youngsters.

"I love coming here and helping the kids out. It gives them something to focus on and teaches them discipline, because making music isn't easy."

"One of my projects is Bourne to Stand Out and I love it because my motto is "Music is my life and life is my music" and I've met loads of kids who think the same idea as me."

Recently, Theone went to a BBC music and football tournament, organised through The Prince's Trust.

"I was only out there for the music really, but I must've been good because I was selected as an All-Star and invited to Switzerland for the European Champion-ships as an ambassador for the UK."

Following the BBC work in Switzerland, Theone has been invited to work part-time on the BBC's 1xtra radio station - which plays urban and street music - and also star on the community channel.

If that goes well he could find himself with a regular job.

"I can't believe I'm doing what I do now. When I was in prison, I'd have thought you were winding me up if you'd said I'd have these opportunities to help myself and others from similar backgrounds with The Prince's Trust.

"I have so many people I need to thank there and hopefully I can continue doing my best to repay the faith they showed in me."