British Superbike champ Steve Parrish recently took time out of his hectic touring schedule to chat to Saturday Sport’s Steve Prout. The former racer – turned SKY TV pundit is currently embarking on a nationwide tour of theatres up and down the country, including Arlington Arts in Newbury. As a follow up to his latest book “Parrish Times” where he charts his rise to success in Superbikes to truck racing, with many a fun anecdote added along the way. Steve told us:
“People like Carl Fogarty were doing their own stage tours and when they ran out of their own material they started using mine! But unfortunately they were getting the stories wrong, so I decided to do my own tour and tell them correctly!“
Steve is keen to point out that in keeping with the book, the tour is as much about high jinks and having fun as it is about racing. He has much to say about sports people today:
“The sad thing is that unless you are picked up by a team when you are very young, train 24/7, eat & sleep when they tell you to, then you are unlikely to get on. The kids that we are seeing coming up are not normal, they are homogenised human beings”
Some of the “tricks” that Steve got up to included, bluffing his way into the UK Bobsleigh team, setting fire to a toilet block in Finland as well as tying crow scarers to the back of a bus. A self-confessed practical joker, Steve started importing jokes and novelties at a very early age and is still doing so to this day. His latest venture are novelty ponchos with a picture of a lady in a bikini to front & rear!
“You will be in the paddock at a race and suddenly you will see what looks a lovely lady walking towards you only to find out it’s a big guy with a beard wearing one of my ponchos!”
To hear the full interview, make sure you tune in this Saturday (22nd Feb) to the Sport Show from 3.00pm.
The M.A.D Tour comes to Arlington Arts on 15th April.
