Mark Steeds

A British Champion racing driver who took on Mansell & Prost but he swerved with his heart in to music, before fashion & property reared up into his life.

Mark was born in 1952 in Warneford Hospital in Leamington & lived in Barford with his parents & eventually little brother Guy.

Mark’s Father, Brian, was 40 years old when Mark was born, & had started his work life having trained as a lawyer to join the family business of Land Agents. Very quickly Brian decided that music was his his passion & headed to London as a professional musician playing the saxophone as well as setting up as an music agent. The war came along & he joined the Army ending up as acting Colonel before demobbing & moving to Barford where he opened a garage called “Brian Steeds Garage”. (Pictured with Mark, his Father & Uncle)

From the age of three Mark was running around the garage covered in oil, playing in the garage & keeping his Father & the team on their toes. ‘Dad’s secretary used to bring in old 78s for me & Guy to listen to & keep us out of trouble.’ Mark tells me.

Once Mark was old enough he went to Arnold Lodge School in Leamington & then at 13 years old he joined Warwick Boys. ‘I didn’t mind school,’ Mark says, ‘but I didn’t do the best, I wasn’t motivated enough to try my best, I was still in the A-stream though.’

One day at the garage Jim Wallsgrove, who went on to be Mayor of Warwick in 1966, pulled up with 2 Racing Karts on a trailer, ‘Dad spoke to him for quite a while & eventually persuaded Jim to sell one of the karts.’ Mark explains, ‘So from about 8 years old I started karting, then when I was 13 Junior Class Karting started so I started racing.’

Racing also took its toll on Mark’s attendance at school as he travelled around Britain & Europe racing, returning to school to catch up & eventually taking A-Levels a year early.

Both Mark & his Dad gained quite a reputation, Mark as a driver & Brian as one of the best 2 stroke engine tuners in the World. Mark raced Nigel Mansell & Alain Prost amongst others during his karting days. ‘I won the British Championship & just about everything that British Karting had to offer,’ Mark recalls,’I was racing against Mansell & at that time I was considered one of the best in the UK, even Formula 1, 4 time World Champion Alain Prost mentions me in his Autobiography as one of his toughest competitors.’

Mark also competed in the CIK-FIA World Championships between 1971 & 1974 coming 4th in his first year, 2nd in 1973 & falling foul to technical & racing accidents in other years. To put that into perspective Aryton Senna came second in both 1979 & 1980, Max Verstappen came 3rd in 2013 & Lando Norris won in 2014.

All of Mark’s racing was self funded with sponsors coming later in his career mainly providing kit, which meant that Mark needed to earn money when he left school. In 1970 Mark started with Courier Press, he quickly qualified in Journalism & was soon working as their Motoring Correspondent, even having to write up his own race results. ‘I worked across all their titles & loved testing all the cars,’ Mark tells me, ‘I even won the RAC Award for the most economical driver at one of their press events.’

Even though Mark was busy working & racing he also started production of a handy visor he used whilst racing. ‘It was called the Turbo Visor & was really handy if you were racing in the wet, Formula 1 legend, Graham Hill used them on his famous open faced visor & even promoted them but they eventually went out of production.’ Mark explains, ‘But at one of my international races in 1971 a Swiss driver offered to buy my old Turbo Visor for £50, eventually we tracked down the old tooling & picked it up for £250 & started production for Kart Racers.’ Although the visor had fallen out of favour in the mainstream, Mark produced around 2,000 of them a year for international karting markets over 30 years.

As Mark explored the World with his racing & travelled around locally with his journalism, he also started to discover the World of live music. ‘I’d never really taken much interest in music at school, but I taught myself piano at home.’ Mark tells me how his music career started, ‘I joined a local band called “Cheeky” with the Southorne Brothers & picked up an electric piano & an upright touring piano to take to gigs.’

Music eventually took over Mark’s life & he gave up racing, left his job & headed off on a four month musical pilgrimage across North America. ‘I hitched across Canada, went from Montreal to Niagara Falls then took a Greyhound Bus down to Tampa in Florida.’ Mark recalls the journey, ‘I met a waitress in a “Wendy’s Burger Bar” & she offered me a room in her apartment living with her & her husband, I stayed there for 3 weeks as they had a pool & there was a rock club just behind the apartment.’ Eventually though he had to move on, ‘I did even consider getting married just so I could stay for longer!’ Mark confesses.

A week in New Orleans was followed by 2 weeks in Los Angeles staying with someone from a contact he had made in Tampa, ‘I arrived in LA at 5am & took the first bus to Manhattan Beach in California & moved in!’ Mark tells me, ‘I was starting to run out of money so I started to head back.’ First stop was the Grand Canyon, where Mark nearly ended his trip forever, ‘I decided to walk down to the bottom of the canyon with just a 6 pack of beer & nearly died of dehydration.’ Having barely survived Mark headed to San Francisco & took the bus to Vancouver Island before hitching back to Montreal where he could fly home again.

Mark’s trip introduced him to both the wonders of America, starting a life long obsession with the country & he also discovered more music which drove him to pursue his career in that direction. ‘I knew my best chance of getting to America was with a record deal so I spent the next 30 years trying to land one!’ Mark laughs, ‘When I got home though The Courier offered me my job back so I took it & stayed for another 18 months before the push for a contract went into overdrive.

Soon a new opportunity came Marks way with punk band “Screens” who were similar in musical style to chart topping “XTC” after hundreds of gigs they had a chance of a record deal with Decca after chart giants “The Clash” saw them & arranged for their management company to come & see them. ‘It was one of those unbelievable opportunities that left us with a big what if!’ Mark recalls, ‘They were coming up to see us for a gig, that day our lead guitarist broke his arm & the gig was cancelled.’

In 1977 they entered the UK Battle of The Bands & won which led to the band being offered a small deal, and later when the band split Mark was offered a slot deal too ‘It was a great offer & I was keen to accept the deal with RCA but I couldn’t write songs well enough for what they wanted so I had to walk away.’

The early 1980s saw Mark move into Jazz Fusion with a local band called “Pzazz”, ‘We did a few live sessions with Capital Radio & even played at the legendary “Ronnie Scotts” in London.’ Mark says, ‘It’s a tough business, I made a living from music, but barely!’

Around this time though Mark invested what money he did have from his various enterprises into buying a house in Woodbine Street by Woodbine Studios in Leamington, where “The Specials” had recorded & Mark turned the basement into a rehearsal room & lived upstairs.

By the mid 80s Mark had joined Stratford-Upon-Avon band “Sharks in Italy”, ‘We managed to get a record contract but the manager left to set up the “Chippendales” & the band fell apart. I joined various bands after that but nothing came of it.’

In 1985 Mark married, it was a whirlwind marriage that ended within 12 months but with a couple of years Mark met married his second wife, Hazel. ‘We had lots in common & we were both on our second marriage, before we knew it we were heading off to New Orleans to tie the knot.’ Mark tells me, ‘We got married on a paddle steamer with witnesses that were take a trip on the steamer & a crazy celebrant wearing sunglasses & Hazel walking down the “Aisle” to “Here comes the Bride” played on a banjo!’ Afterwards they drove to Nashville to visit Gracelands. ‘We had a great time, but we stayed with the Deputy Head of Music for Warner Brothers & he didn’t know where the live music was.’

Returning back to the UK Mark & Hazel, with Hazel’s children Carl & Tracey to consider, looked at how to make a living & decided that with Hazel’s eye for fashion they could design clothes. In 1989 they launched their fashion label “Ritual” & worn by stars of the time like Freddie Starr & Chris Eubanks but they soon found that the Fashion industry was as difficult as the music industry. ‘We were doing well but people were ripping us off & failing to produce goods we’d paid for, I don’t think we made anything over 6 years.’

Mark recalls though that just as they were looking to close down the business a Hong Kong businessman got in touch. ‘I think he thought we were top London designers, but he wanted to fly us out to Hong Kong to work on some designs for him, so we went.’ Mark explains, ‘When we got to the hotel we bumped into a guy called Victor Cruz & hit it off straight away. I think he’d taken a shine to Hazel but it turns out he was a gangster from Portugal.’ Victor escorted the couple around Hong Kong during their stay, ‘It was a surreal experience, everyone knew him & nothing was a problem, it was a heady experience being in his wild World but we were glad to get back too.’

After the fashion business ended Mark returned to music for a while, recording 6 albums of “Library Music” over 3 or 4 years in a recording studio he had built in his new home. Then in 1997 Mark’s Father died leaving Mark & his brother Guy with the old garage in Barford.

They decided to sell the property & Mark used the money to buy a derelict building with the aim of renovating it. ‘I loved the idea of developing property & I had done ok with the properties I’d picked up before so thought I’d go for it.’ Mark tells me, ‘I used my inheritance & maxed out my credit cards but after 18 months of labouring & learning the trades, I ended up with 3 flats & immediately started to look for more property.’

Mark added more property, renovating them to a high standard & renting them out, building a portfolio of 12 flats & financial stability. Next came a big opportunity & Mark took on a huge multi-million pound project in 2004, despite some planning issues & delays he managed to scrape through & complete the project.

During the project Mark was approached by a new bank to re-finance his property portfolio in a move that would save him money & give him access to more funds if he wanted them. ‘It seemed like a good deal but it turned into a nightmare when the financial crash hit & everything went wrong with the finance.’ Mark recalls, ‘We kept up with the payments & the banks kept selling our financing onto different banks. In the end we spent the next 10 years fighting the banks with 5 years of litigation just to get back to where we were.’

Mark has now salvaged his property pension, although the banks are still playing hard ball he can see the proverbial light. ‘I’ve had 12 years of stress but I can see the way out now & can start selling some properties to pay off the debts.’ Mark explains, ‘I learnt the building trade & I’ve refurbished my house which is great, but one wrong move & I nearly lost everything.’

Now Mark enjoys heading into Warwick with Hazel & his old friends to enjoy a few beers & some live music when he can. Maybe he’ll have one last go at getting that record deal.