The life and times of motorcycle legend Steve Parrish on stage in Fife

The show on Saturday, April 18 is based on his book of the same name which came about after the success of his Mad Tour.

“It’s been a lot of fun and very successful,” he said, “I’ve done it the wrong way round, turning a tour into a book.

“Initially when the Mad Tour started it was called that because it stood for My Adolescent Dad because my daughter was hosting it.

“She’s since gone off to live in Geneva so my lovely wife does it now.

“It’s a two hour show with lots of fun, daft, silly stories of my days travelling the world racing motorcycles and trucks, getting into all sorts of pickles and commentating. I worked for the BBC for 12 years commentating on MotoGB.

“It was back in the days when I think sportsmen probably had a lot more fun. We didn’t get paid as much but we were able to live our lives to the fullest. Particularly in motorcycle racing because it was so dangerous. Everybody lived for the day to a certain extent.

“So it’s a very amusing show about funny things that took place. And there are some sad things of course – I lost a lot of friends during that period of time.”

A champion in both of his fields Steve spent a lot of time travelling with his friend, the legendary motorcycle rider Barry Sheene.

“We were just being lads,” he says, “back then that’s how sportsmen were more inclined. There was no CCTV, not everyone had a camera on their phone so we got away with a lot more than you probably could do now.

“Arguably that’s the same with most sports nowadays. It’s become a lot more commercialised and very PC. You can’t get away with anything.

“We raced at weekends and had fun during the week. A lot of that time of course was spent travelling around together. It was known as the continental circus back in the 70s and 80s.

“There was a group of between 30-50 with all the different classes travelling around from Italy to France, up to Finland, from there back down to the Czech Republic, so as you can imagine it was a lot of fun.

Steve is still very much involved with the sport covering races for both the BBC and ITV.

He says: I’m still racing classic bikes, and I’m award presenting and going to the launches of new motorcycles

“An awful lot of stuff goes on. Nearly every weekend I’m involved with something to do with motorcycling.

“I adore the riders competing now. I have the utmost respect for them, but on Monday they’ll be back in the gym, on Tuesday they’ll be with a dietician, Wednesday probably the sports psychiatrist, the press officer Thursday, racing Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then the same routine all over again.

“They don’t have a lot of spare time. It’s so pressurised commercially. With the money and the sponsorship they’re not allowed to have a night out.

“We would be in the pub or a club on Sunday night knowing on the Monday we could sleep it off.

“We were living the dream, although sometimes sadly dying of the dream.

“There’s no characters left in sport because they don’t live a full life.”

There’s no doubt whatsoever Steve has done exactly that as his show will attest.

As he puts it: “I’m 43 years with a proper job now!”

• Tickets are available from www.onfife.com.