Full Chat podcast: Steve Parrish on being sponsored by The Beatles’ George Harrison
Former motorbike and truck racing legend Steve Parrish is the latest guest on the second series of motorcycling podcast Full Chat.
Larger-than-life Parrish, well known for being a prankster as well as a MotoGP commentator, lifted a string of titles across motorsport disciplines after competing at British and world level.
The 71-year-old sat down with hosts Iwan Thomas and footballer-turned-presenter David Prutton to discuss his biking history, career and funny anecdotes including forming friendships with The Beatles’ George Harrison and iconic motorbike racer Barry Sheene.
The Beatles’ George Harrison gave me £40k, recalls Steve ‘Stavros’ Parrish
During the episode Parrish, better known as Stavros, told the boys how one of the most famous pop stars on the planet came to sponsor him during his racing career.
“Like most things in my life, a lot were instigated by Barry Sheene because he was the man that knew everybody,” Parrish revealed.
“He’d open a lot of doors very very easily, but at the end of 1977 I finished fifth in the world championship, which for my first year I was very pleased with.
“I’d never seen any of the circuits before, never been on an aeroplane before, so I got really stuck in. I got given Barry’s bike from 1976, so I had a one-year-old bike and he had a new one, but we had some good battles together.
“At the end of 1977, Suzuki Japan decided they didn’t have a budget to run three riders for 1978. The team that year was myself, Barry and an American called Pat Hennen who finished third in the championship, and I was fifth so I was the one that was dropped.
“Barry was really pissed off because he wanted me to stay on the team because we were mates and George Harrison had been coming to some of the races.
“I got to meet George and his lovely wife Olivia. George came up to me one day and said ‘Don’t worry Stavros’ which is my nickname, a lot of people won’t know that. Anyway George said: ‘Don’t worry Stavros I’ll buy you some petrol and some tyres and some bits and pieces and so on.’
“And he gave me this address to go down to London where his record company was and I walked in, and this lady gave me an envelope and in it was a cheque for about £40,000. And in 1978, £40,000 was a lot of money!
“It bought me two (Suzuki) RG500s, a TZ-50 Yamaha and more. It was enough to set me up.”
Plenty more episodes of Full Chat to enjoy
Series two’s engine is well and truly warm, but we’ve got a host of episodes for you to listen to if you’ve missed the previous series of our motorcycling podcast.
You can listen to Full Chat on Spotify, Apple, YouTube or various other platforms if you want to see what all the fuss is about.
