Your Mind Matters – Scott Stringfellow, My Father Myself

William Shakespeare wrote these words in A Midsummer Night's Dream: To you your father should be as a god, one that composed your beauties, yea, and one to whom you are but as a form in wax, by him imprinted and within his power to leave the figure or disfigure it. Fathers, like mothers, are pillars in the development of a child's emotional well-being. Children look to their fathers to lay down the rules and enforce them. They also look to their fathers to provide a feeling of security, both physical and emotional. John Bowlby, the father of attachment theory, wrote, 'He is there to keep the family safe, to guard and protect the family. His view will always be different and hopefully balance the view of the mother. The mother is traditionally the carer of the emotions while the father brings reality to the experience.' The mother as a feminine sees the world from one perspective and the father as a masculine sees it from another. But fathers often behave quite differently from the mothers in the way that they play rough and tumble games. They move and speak differently, their voices are deeper and often with more authority. It is reported that it is their influence which teaches a boy how sociable he will be. His role is to enable the child to take risks, to face the onslaught of the outside world, and to be able to stand up to the social interactions which can take place both at work and with friends. He is the template upon which the boy, boy, and either lays down his own character or in part rejects it. He understands the masculine style of bureaucracy and obstacles that the child may encounter. And ultimately permitting the child to take the father's crown. I am Dr. Maria Kempinska, a psychotherapist and businesswoman, and this is Your Mind Matters. Today I have the greatest pleasure in interviewing Scott Stringfellow, who has written a book about his father, the celebrity club owner Peter Stringfellow, called My Dad Was the King of Clubs. Please welcome Scott. Why did you choose to write this book? Hello, and, uh, first of all, I said that was an interesting passage you read there from Shakespeare, and it— and there was quite a lot in it which is very apt to what I've been writing about. I, I was— that's the first time I've, I've never been a massive Shakespeare fan, even though I went to stage school and did a little bit. But, um, I don't think my dad was much into Shakespeare, but that spoke a lot of volumes, and it was a very realistic thing. And I think that points out why I wrote the book about Dad. It wasn't really meant to come out a book initially because it all developed, uh, initially from when I was in the hospital with, uh, with that, basically. Ah, and at what point in your life was that? Well, uh, well, with— we were in the hospital. This is, uh, 2017 when he first because he'd had cancer before, way back in 2008, and it was in his lung, and he cut half his lung out, and he recovered fully, and it was fantastic. And he went on to do many things, even some crazy things, uh, when you've only got one and a half lungs. But at the same time, it kind of, um, it, it— when it came to the second one, again, they kind of got rid of it, and then it came back again. And this was over between 2017, 2018, and we only really found out how bad it was, how it was going to be, on, uh, amazingly enough, New Year's Eve for 2018, which was pretty horrendous, has to be said. And, uh, at the end of the day, we— I just— we had been talking about stuff, and we were talking about various things that had happened, how we remembered this. I thought, oh yeah, yeah, and he says, oh yeah, and that happened. Do you remember when— oh yeah, yeah, because you tend to do this when there's very little going in on in the hospital. And we did talk about things. Sometimes it was club stuff, and I think he found that quite frustrating to talk about club stuff. That's how I read it anyway, because he couldn't do anything. He was in a hospital bed and he was having tests and this, that, the other. He was— by this point, he was starting to deteriorate a little bit as well, and he knew it. And, um, so we ended up talking about stuff that we've done in the past. He remembers things different to me. I thought, I'm gonna have to start writing this down so I don't forget. And I said— I did. I started writing things on my phone. He said, 'What are you doing?' I said, 'I'm just gonna write it down a bit.' And then he got steadily worse and worse. I started the writing down because I was finding it really difficult to go into the hospital and going away. And at the same time, he wasn't telling anybody what was going on. So nobody at the club knew. They just knew I was going into the club at funny hours and disappearing. Some nights I wasn't there at all. And it's because he wouldn't— didn't want his managers to know at all. The only people closely knew was, uh, one of the directors, Julian, and, uh, and, uh, another directors within the club, and myself, including my sister, and obviously his wife. And, um, and basically he had a very— he put a big curtain around it. He didn't want everybody else to know anything that was going on, so it was quite tricky. And, and he, and he was very much a hands-on person with the club, so it got to a certain point where he was trying to direct things from where he was, but he couldn't really because he didn't really— there were some nights where he couldn't talk to anybody or anything. And they were used to at the club him turning up. And, um, as I actually read in the— wrote in the book, that in the early part of 2017, when he first had— he had a procedure to do something with his, uh, oh, was it— I said, oh God, what they call it, it's down there, down near the liver, but it's something else. Slipped my mind. Anyway, I had a little procedure, and then Dad being the crazy person he could be— because until then, when things started, I used to drive him to work and back. So he stopped him driving, so I used to pick him up and take him, and we'd talk on the way. And we'd only get involved in talking about anything too much involved with, uh, with everything that's going on with him. But he had this procedure, and then he went out the hospital, went home, decided he was going to go in the club And we're all going, Peter, he's— PA said, Peter, you shouldn't be doing this. He said, I know, I know, but I want to go out, I want to do this. And then we get— he gets to the club, and I've picked him up, taken him, and I said, this is crazy, Dad, you've just been— had an operation today, you shouldn't be going to the club. It's all right, Scotty, it's fine, it's fine, it's okay. So he goes to the club, and then he kind of round the table, he says, right, I'm gonna go soon. Yeah, okay, I'll take you home. He said, no, no, I want to go and have a look at another club, uh, and everybody will— what, what? And it's— I think there's only a couple of us picked up on it. This is my dad thinking, right, I've got to show I can— I'm back and I'm doing things. So we get in the car, I said, are you out your head? Where are we going? And then his— one of his friends came with us as well in the back because Dad was, was struggling a little bit walking around. He was okay, but he was, but he was struggling a bit here and there. He says, well, we've got to go to, um, Park Lane. Oh, Park Lane, okay, great. So he goes to Park Lane Hotel down there. I think it was the Hilton, I'm not sure. And there's a bar that is up some, you know, in there. He said he was thinking about making it into a girl club thing and a hotel, could be good for us. So we get there and this— I said, right, where are we parking? Because you can't walk far. He says, don't worry, they've said we can leave the car in the front, it's not a problem. So we get out and we go to the doorstep. It's in my book, this, for those that are going to read it. And it's— and we get to the steps and I look up and there's a flight of steps going up. And I do actually use swear words, but I'm not going to do right now. But are you joking? He says, Scotty, he said, I know, I know, but steps and you right now, you've just had an operation. So we go up the stairs and he had this habit and he did it for quite a while. That I'd be in front of him. He'd put his hands on my shoulder, one hand on my shoulder, and you could feel him start to shake when he got to the top. And then he was fine. The guy comes towards him, the maitre d' or the manager, and he can do that— it does that instant click. I'm fine. Hey, hi, you know, Peter here is doing his thing. And we walk in, we're looking around. So what do you think? I said, I think it's a bit too small, Dad. It really is. It's a very nice bar area, but not for what we are. Where are the girls going to get changed? It's, it's that change area, that area over there. If you make that a stage, it's gonna be tiny. I said, the other thing here, Dad, it's in a hotel. Kind of makes things a little bit easy for something to happen that shouldn't happen. Oh yeah, yeah, maybe you're right. All right, okay. I said, have you had enough today or what? He says, no, no, yeah, okay, let's go. So we head off. He says thank you to the guys and everything. As we come down the stairs, he's about to go, and I said Wait, I'll get in front. He said no, no. I said no, you're not fighting me on this. Just put your hand on my shoulder, we'll be fine. And yet again, bottom of the stairs, he was really like shaking now. Got him in the car, he sent a text to Bella saying he's on his way home. He just crashed out in the car asleep and I drove him. And that kind of sticks in my mind, the whole of that, because that was what he was like. He was very good at overcoming obstacles. It's the only way he knew, by just being him and just jumping into things. And he'd done that throughout his life, um, mainly nightclubs. He really stuck his neck out a lot of times in the '70s. And clearly '70s are very different to what they are now, obviously. But, um, he took some massive risks. And it wasn't until I read his book that I knew the risks that he'd taken. Because as a kid growing up, you were not party to what was going on. You know, my dad at nightclubs, as far as I'm concerned, early on he was just a DJ. You know, and then, oh, it's all club. Yeah, yeah, it's a DJ in his own club and stuff. And you kind of just get used to that way of life. And, um, you know, and he spent hours, you know, days and days at these clubs, and he just worked his ass off basically running the clubs from Sheffield right through to London. It was just all go. Um, and we did move around, me and my sister, different schools. And my sister was from dad's first marriage, so it was a little time where she'd be with us at weekends. And then when we went to Manchester, it was the other way around. She came with us for a week, she went to school in Manchester, and then went back her home in Sheffield for the weekends. So it was a, a continuous fluid movement of a family that moved from place to place. And that's how he worked his life. He just kind of jumped from one thing to another, and he always won. He always overcame everything that had had a problem because Running nightclubs isn't easy at all, um, and then to become like the most well-known nightclub owner, I think, in the world— I can't think of any others, um, other than singers that done a little bit of dabbling. But, um, and that's the thing about Dad, he was just one of those people, just— he had a certain charisma, a certain way, and he also had a good idea, and he knew what people wanted. And we just went from city to city building these bigger and better nightclubs every time. And his goal, amazingly, wasn't London at first. When we were in Manchester, we nearly went to San Francisco, which was— looking back now, you'd never think that would even possibly happen. But he did go visit America and he was quite taken with the disco scene because it was the '70s I'm talking about, late '70s. So disco was like exploding. That was where he wanted to go. He thought if he went to San Francisco But then he was looking for other premises as well, and he saw London, and he kind of put in an interest in there. And there's one property looked at, didn't think it was going to come to anything, so he was still pointing his nose firmly at San Francisco. And then his lawyer's gone back to him and said, hey Peter, you know, they've kind of in London have accepted what you might want to do there. I'm not so up in the ins and outs of how things happen on business-wise for building a club. Um, but he told me quite a bit. But I'm— there's those little intricacies of dealing with, uh, builders and, and legislation and, and licenses. I kind of picked up on that a little bit later on, but not to the same extent that he knew, obviously. So when he got the call for London, suddenly all changed. And I do know his brother Jeff and his Jeff's wife were quite pissed off, basically, that my dad had suddenly said, okay, we're not going to America now, we're going to stay kind of changed the course a few things somewhat. And I had no idea we were even going to go to America, so it's only later on did I think, oh hell, I could have ended up going to school in San Francisco. Cool, would that be? Can you tell me a bit about your early life? So your sister was a half-sister, um, and how long were your parents married for? Uh, 26 years. Ah, quite a long time. And were they married all and together all that time? Well, I was actually at the wedding. Oh, tell me. I was 1 year old in 1967. They got married, and, um, my dad had recently then had got just got divorced from my sister's mother. And then things kind of, kind of snowballed really from 1964, '65 onwards, and I came along in '66. And, um, so my early reminiscences of my dad don't really— I'm actually quite good at remembering stuff from a long time. There's a lot of people, my friends say, that I do tend to, or remember an awful lot of crap and, um, weird stuff that they don't remember. But my memory does go back as far as Sheffield. Now that means we left there when I was about 4 years old, so that's not bad to go that far. But I do remember We lived in Sheffield and my dad— I've got a picture somewhere, in fact I've seen it recently. I've been seeing my mother and we did find the old pictures and, um, there's one of a picture of him asleep on the sofa and he's got a, a suit on with a dickie bow. Dickie bow was undone. And that's how I remember Dad a lot of the time. He was usually back at the house, we did some things, but he was usually crashed out on the sofa or he was out. And, uh, that cuts because he was also not only doing his own club, he was also DJing in other places as well. So he did an awful lot. So he was— he was he running his own club and DJing because also, just to let the listeners know, uh, about the Beatles, tell us the Beatles story. Well, the Beatles thing is what really kicked him off. Him off? Yeah, he got involved. There's— well, that's going back before me, the Beatles thing. And, um, he more or less was, um, he'd been in trouble with the law. He used to do salesman— he was pretty much one of these people who had a business mind early on, and he got involved with all sorts of— he was a shoe salesman, um, and then he got involved with Carpet Company, and he tried to sell off these offcuts, and they, you know, collared him for it. He didn't know he was doing something wrong. He just thought they were not needed and he could, you know, sell them on. But so he was being a little bit of a sharp cookie and it got him caught out and he went to prison for about 3 months. And he still said after, he says, that's the best thing that ever happened to me. He says, because they put me in with an old guy and it all— and he said, don't get involved in all this sunshine, you know, I've got to find something else. So when he came out, one of his friends took him to, um, a mobile disco place somewhere He says there's all these people. He says, I couldn't believe how rammed it was for— because he's since told me all this because I asked him about it some years ago. He said he can't believe how many people. It's also in his book. He said there's a church hall full of kids. He says there's, there's music going and they're just all dancing. He says, I don't think they're all being charged to come in. It gave him a bit of an idea, so he approached his local church hall, um, My mother remembered the name of the guy, and it's probably even in his book, mind you. Maybe not, because his memory wasn't so good with names early on, but, uh, my mother will remember. But, um, it kind of gave him the opportunity to do something. He painted up the inside of this church hall, got people to come in, put flyers out and stuff, played music at one end, invested in, you know, some playing music, and it all snowballed. Then he had a chip stand at the other end so they could eat as well as dance. And then it was just soft drinks and stuff. And then it kind of snowballed from there. And there's a little bit— why, it's a gray area for me— but then he got involved along the way and got his own place, which was a converted house that became, uh, the King Mojo. And that's where really things started going. But that happened, he was really going— struggling to get acts on and get people in and stuff. And then he heard of an act that was coming up, and he rang up the manager and said, hey, would you like to play at my place? Yeah, you know, how much? And it was like, the numbers are in his book and I can't remember off the top of my head now, but I know they raised pretty quickly, like, you know, £40 for this act in like 1964 or something, '65, '63, '64. It's huge. To my dad, that was a huge amount to pay for an act. Definitely. We heard they were good and, you know, okay, we'll do it. So let me think about it. Then he goes away and rings back and, uh, to this guy Turns out to be the manager of the Beatles, Mr. Epstein. And he says, look, okay, I'll go for it. He said, well, it's 60 quid now. He went, oh, okay, okay, we'll do it. I'll work it out. Anyway, gets all the tickets printed up and it went bananas because, um, there was no— so many people wanted to come, he had no room at his place. So then him and his brother Jeff touted around the area, they found the Azina Ballroom in Sheffield. Which is unfortunately now is a supermarket. But, um, in fact, they should have a plaque. They need a blue plaque there. Good idea. Yeah. But, um, yeah, so the ballroom, so they went there and it just packed it out. My dad and Jeff got up on the stage. Hey everybody, welcome to Sheffield. Hey everybody, you know, get them all going. Brings on the Beatles and, um, and it kind of started him off more or less. They kind of got seen as being able to get really good acts. And then he, as you called it, created the lead super scene. Well, that came a little bit later. Right now, the Sheffield thing was just developed because after you had to close Mojo down because he got so many complaints about noise and stuff, then he moved in town. He had a couple of clubs on the bounce, uh, south, uh, down Broadway, and then also another one called the Black Cat, which the Black Penthouse. Penthouse was the last one, I think. And I, and I still remember that one, I believe, because there was a fire escape that went up and it took a while to get up there, and the club was at the top. And as a young kid, I still remember going up there with Dad, and this guy was walking past with a massive case with some sort of COVID on it. And I remember asking, what's that? And he said, it's an amplifier. And my little my brain was imagining, why, why do you need a box with fire in it? You know, this is, this is a 3, 4-year-old. Yeah, I think that still kind of twigs my mind there. But when we went to Leeds is because my dad decided Sheffield— he wanted to go further afield, he wanted to spread his wings. And he found this, um, it was being built, a new plot of land that was going to be something else. Years later it became a university underneath. And, uh, and then we on the top— my dad became the first residents of it, and they put two nightclubs together, Cinderella's and Rockefeller's. One was still being built when we started the first one, which was quite weird. And then we got them both going, and that was the Leeds Super Scene that you mentioned there. And then that there again, I mean, were the Cinderella's— was a little bit more hard rocky music and, uh, bands on there. And then next door I mean, literally next door, they were together. Rockefeller's a bit more mellowy music, disco-y still, but, um, and also, um, acts on there. Um, I particularly remember I got invited along by Dad to go there because he had the Grumbleweeds on. Ah, so I saw the Grumbleweeds. Now I sat there with my Action Man with me. Okay, so you went— you were quite often beside him as he uh, or in the clubs that he organized? I, I've been to a few of them. Yeah, in fact, there's a— I've got a picture of me and a Dicky Bow and stuff. In fact, I mean, in the Sheffield and the Leeds one, in, um, uh, Cinderella's, I remember I, I went— my dad took me there one night and I was up on stage with him and I told a load of jokes to his adult audience. Did you? How old were you then? Um, I think I was about 6 or 7. We'd already lived at Wakefield for 1 year when I was 5, and then 6 or 7 years old, I'm up on stage telling jokes. Telling jokes, amazing. But they were— I liked— so you were very perfect because actually children find it quite hard to get on stage and tell jokes. But here we are, he was quite a hands-on father with you. It was very much. And, um, even though we never really saw each other for breakfast because he just— he was a night owl— it was, um, he was very much hands-on in many ways. And when we went on holidays, it was just fantastic. He was just pretty good at doing the holiday thing. And but, uh, but when I was doing the— I remember doing my most risqué joke was, what's the definition? I probably didn't know what half the words meant. What's the definition of American bra? One yank and it's off. That was my mum's joke at 6 years old. At 6. Okay, but your father was a hands-on father. Yeah. And you tell the story also about, you said, your dad turned me over his knee and said these words that would have such an effect that are, but yet are not quite true. This is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you. What was the occasion? Uh, we were on holiday in, uh, I think it might have been Mallorca or Tenerife, one or two. Now we used to have— Karen and I were looked after generally because obviously mum started going with dad a lot to this, to the club most of the time. So we had somebody who came, babysitter. We hated that, we used to call her house sitter, and she was a lovely lady. But, uh, she came on holiday with us too. I can't remember if it was Tenerife or Mallorca or wherever, but Apparently I'd called her a rude word, and I still remember what it was. And, um, and my, um, my sister basically dobbed me in to my parents. She told— how much older is she than you? Uh, only a couple of years, you know. She's born in '63, so she's, she's 50-something. I'm 55 now. God grief, does that shock you? Um, sometimes, yes, because, uh, because it The thing with age is you have to— I, I go through my head sometimes thinking, wow, my dad went to, um, London when he was 40. 40 years old. And when I got to 40, I thought, come on, my dad was doing the Stringfellers, opened up when he was 40 years old. Here am I at 40 instructing people and this, that, and the other, what I was doing at the time when I turned 40. And do you actually find yourself uh, comparing yourself to your father through activity or his style? I did do, I did do for quite a while, I have to say. I, I did. But, um, and, um, I kind of, I had to stop doing that because, um, my mother even said, she said, just stop trying to compare yourself to your dad. You, you were two different people in many ways. You're successful in your own way, and your father was so successful in his way. And, uh, and she's very right. But there was a time where I just wanted to— I wanted to be like Danny, had lots of flash cars, and me loving cars and racing and stuff, I wanted to do that too. But I never seemed to go in that direction. And, um, when I did decide to get back involved in the clubs, uh, quite a few years ago now, because I literally left my instructing world and went off and did— was it nearly 11 years of the club? Doing night times and stuff. And it is a hard business to be in because it can screw up relationships, it can, uh, screw up your social life. Your social life is wherever you go in the evenings to be with the people from the nightlife. You don't really see a lot of people at the weekends and stuff because your club's opening at weekends as well, except for Sunday. But that seems to be your only day off. When, in the days when my dad were doing it, He seemed to be almost 24/7, you know, an nightclub man. And that's the way he kind of led his life. And he was very happy. And he did get very successful to the point where, you know, he had a house in Mallorca, a second house, and a boat to play with. And that— he was actually more happy there, I think, than anywhere else towards the last few years because he felt comfortable. I did have one conversation with him. This is in 2000 and 15 or 16 myself, and my wife and kids were over there on holiday, Majorca, with him. And I was swimming in his pool and looking back at his house, said, oh, it's a great house. He says, yeah, yeah. He says, um, you know, actually sometimes I think, you know, I feel I've earned it. Because— and that was his thing. It wasn't about trying to have everything in the world and having more money than anybody else. It was being comfortable, um, and enjoying what you have. Yeah. But also, can I just add, um, that— let's get a picture of your father. He had a number of siblings. Um, he worked very hard, and also he helped his family. You say he helped everybody, not just the family, of so many people. And quite a few, a few of them did kind of crap on him, to be honest. After he'd helped them out, you know, they turned around and just were just— I can't say the words on radio, clearly. But, um, it's, um, but they were— they could see the people. But he was one of those people that gave people second chances. Yeah. And also, he also helped, uh, he was very involved with the Army, wasn't wasn't he? He always had a little bit more towards the— he leaned more towards the, uh, the Navy, to be honest, because he loved boats. He was— well, in his early days when he was 17, before he got involved in anything, he went to do the Merchant Navy, and he literally saw New York from his ship that he was on. And he was working in the— not, uh, I can't try to remember what his little job was, and it was on board. It was It wasn't— he was helping the cook. I think it was a sous chef or something. He just cut up all the veggies for him and stuff. And he— but he got to see some of the world, and he said he remembered being on there looking across, seeing New York, thought, one day I'm gonna go there. The fact that many years later he put a nightclub there was like above and beyond what he originally thought himself. Yeah, amazing what he managed to do. Now, you also were a DJ similar to your father. Well, I had a go at it. Um, I have to say, my racing life has kind of papered over absolutely everything because I kind of— I went back to have a go at that, doing a bit of DJing. In fact, this is many years ago when I decided to stop instructing the first time and get involved in the clubs. The DJ there was trying— was panicking that I was after his job, so he didn't really want to teach me very much. Yeah. And I had a bit of fun doing it, but I didn't really get involved and I slipped back into instructing again. The next. So tell us about your driving, your world of drive. When— how did that come about? Because you were quite young when you went into the world of, uh, actual— this is fast car driving, isn't it? Well, yeah, yeah. Well, the thing is, it's, um, I'd always loved cars. My dad's a lot of really nice cars about in the past, like he's had Jaguars, Jensen Interceptor, he had a Porsche Turbo that when he sold that I didn't speak to him for 2 weeks because I was just gutted. But, uh, um, I always enjoyed motor racing and it was quite weird actually happened because I had a, um, one of my racing friends, Richard Dean, his father— my dad sponsored his father in Formula 5000 in the '70s. Richard Dean was karting. I knew karting existed, but I didn't think I was ever going to get there. I just liked watching racing cars. I liked— loved cars in general. I always thought, like a lot of people at the time, maybe I'll be following down father's footsteps to go be a DJ and run a club, etc., and never really thought any further than that. But then I got a chance. We went to a a charity dinner for— oh, it'll come to me— the Variety Club of Great Britain. My dad was always doing stuff for them and raising money. He got a couple of, uh, coaches, Sunshine Coaches, for them. So we went to one of these things called a race night, and we were sat at this dinner table, and they had these funny hobby horse races across the dance floor, and you had to bet on people, always raising money for their cause. And then later on there was an auction, and part of this auction was a motor racing package. This was tickets to the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch for 1982— this is 1981, by the way— 1982 British Grand Prix, uh, for Le Mans, tickets for there, and also, uh, signed books by whoever the world champion is going to be that year, by Nelson Piquet ended up being, of this magazines for Grand Prix International, which I ended up collecting. And then, um, also, um, a day's trial at the Brands Hatch MRS, uh, Motor Racing Stables track day racing school. So it's like, wow, that won't get any better than it. And I still think to this day it was the biggest deal ever because clearly the people there, they really didn't know what was involved with that. That was such a mega package. I only got it for £250. Ah, which even now I think is just stunning, uh, value for money because I ended up going to see, uh, you know, the British Grand Prix with Dad. And but I went to Le Mans with my sister's then-boyfriend to go to watch that, and that was fantastic. And then I went to do racing school and I did an initial trial and I loved it so much I said I'd like to do more of this. And I only was able to do it because The previous year when we were on holiday in America, I went and got an American driving license because I was underage at the time to drive on the road, but I could go to the racing school, which I did do for 2 years roughly, on and off, in between. You were quite young, weren't you? I was, I was 16. I was still going to school. Still young, yeah, especially at that time. I mean, people don't realize that in this period of time— so you're 55, but in within that sort of '35 period of time, lots of opportunities are given to teenagers at that time. Those opportunities were just not given, were they? So you were very, very fortunate to have that. Well, the racing drivers now can go into racing in Formula— I've seen it so often from karting. They can jump in from a kart to racing at the age of 14. So you get 14 to 17-year-olds racing against each other. Uh, Lando Norris started out, uh, karts and ended up racing in juniors, in, uh, Ginetta Juniors. I've even led him round when he was doing that, um, Formula Renault, I think, or Formula Ford when he came to do that, Formula 4 even. And, um, so, you know, these things, yeah, that could end up on another completely different direction, that conversation about— I know, but you're, you're just so knowledgeable. Yeah, because when I started, Formula 1 would not look at anybody unless it was 26 and over. Exactly. And now, you know, if you're, if you're still not in your teens, you know, you're not getting anywhere. And that— exactly, that's, that's the difficulty now. However, there's more opportunities, but in those days you were very advanced. But wasn't it your mother that took you to quite a number of the— to the circuit? Yes, she did. But yeah, well, um, when I, uh, started driving when I was 17, I was actually still at school because I was down a year from my Manchester school days. I came down from Manchester to London and I went to a stage school, which was the Arts Educational School. Oh yeah. At the Barbican. I mean, it was a lovely, brilliant, brilliant place. I enjoyed it. Didn't realize I enjoyed it until I left, obviously. But it was fantastic to do drama because I was going to be an actor, but then I came out wanting to race cars instead. And did you regret that? Do you regret you didn't do it? Actually, no. But at the same time, sometimes I see things on TV and you get a bit of a pang where I thought, wow, I would love to have played that part. I generally like, um, detective things. I love Columbo. I'd love, you know, to be so like that. I quite enjoyed that. So it's sort of quite quirky, quite, uh, yeah, disarming and understated. And also comedy. I loved comedy. I was like, ah, excellent. I would love to have been in Blackadder. Of course, John Lloyd is the producer there, an amazing man. Can I come back to you as a personality? Yeah, because here we are, we're talking to you, you're so vibrant, you're so alive, you're you know, chatty. You've got so much information. How were you, if you compare your personality to the public? How could the public see you as opposed to your father? I have no idea, except that in my racing days, in the early '84, '85, I was seen as a bit of a playboy. And when I got into F3, because my father was financing my racing career, that doesn't always go down with everybody. No, but there's an awful lot of young lads being that way. But back then it was, uh, wasn't quite so obvious, you know. The, the, there are a lot of people that had help from family money. Of course, of course. And, um, and now they call it the bank of mum and dad, don't they? Well, yeah, but I had Hippodrome Splash all over my car for the first 4 years. Then in the last year, last half of the year of my then career, but kind of came to a stop at the end of '89, I had Stringfellers on my car. I have to say, it felt quite weird to your father be your sponsor. Because when I was still living at home at the time in '84, '85, I was having races and not having a great time, having accidents every now and then. And you have to go home and I'd see my— not just my sponsor, but my dad— and explain what happened, right? And he kind of took it all quite well, to be honest. He was never a pushy guy when he came to race meetings. He wasn't one of those dads that wants to get too involved. He didn't understand motor racing. He came to watch. He was quite happy to stand back and let me get on with it, which I, I look back and I'm immensely grateful because I've seen other people's careers be slightly ruined by their parents, has to be said, who get too involved. They get too involved or pushy or take over. Well, there is a little bit of all of that, but it— but Dad never did any of that. He just wanted to go in there. If we had a hospitality suite, it was even better. Because then he could sit up there, hold a glass of champagne, and watch what was going on. So did you at some point have that very hedonistic lifestyle? I don't— I personally never did, really. My dad, more or less, because he was, he was Mr. Champagne, you know. Yeah, he was one of those people that he'd have a bottle of champagne, he won't— he couldn't throw away the bottle. He had a load of them. He kept them on the top of his, um, worktops up high, and he's kept things— he liked them. And, um, Sorry, just to interrupt, um, he didn't come from a money background himself though, did he? Not, not at all, not in any way, shape, or form. He really was, uh, you know, a self-made man. Yeah, exactly, because his father was in the steelworks, who was also in the, in the army. Uh, I can't remember what his mother did, but I think she just raised 4 boys basically in a 2-up, 2-down in Sheffield. And he did show me the house once upon a million years ago when we were driving up there because we went to do, um, I'm stepping back a fair few years here. We had this thing where he said he had to go on a tour of all the towns we've been at clubs before, asked him, Martin, giving him a car, he has to do a report about that. Wanted me to help him to drive the car here and there and then see these journalists in different places. And it was great to sit there and listen when I was, uh, because he'd drive when we were in the towns and I drove between And, uh, you could hear the stories he came out with. And then once that all finished— I mean, finished with one particular one in Sheffield— and we're off to go stay where we were staying, and, uh, he said, oh, let's go over here, Scotty. So go for a drive. Said, this is where I lived. He showed me, and it was on a sloping hill, and it was a terrace, two up, two down. And I mean, how on earth did your mother bring up four kind of lads? He says, it was very hard. But he never, he never put any, uh, gloss or, or any, you know, sad stories into it. He just— it was very much a fact. It was just very hard. And we all did. He said he didn't know they were poor. They were just, you know. But he really had that togetherness, that helping the family. But you had at some point quite a difficult time in your life, didn't you? Um, that came later on when I was at stage school and The thing about, um, coming to London, you become, um, especially when you become known, the press back then were everything, you know. Social media wasn't happening, and everybody was all over your father, weren't they? And, uh, he was it. And my dad attracted so many well-known people to the club. It was the place to be for quite a few years on the trot. Definitely, definitely. And, uh, all the way through the '80s, I would reckon. Uh, and it was, um, and it was a fantastic time. But obviously sometimes Dad had this He knew how to play the press though. He says that, you know, it's going to be some things. This is after something had happened where I was ready to go to school one morning, off to arts, when we lived in central London on Marylebone Road. And he always had the newspapers at the end of the club, and then I'd go knit by, uh, I don't know, King's Cross, whoever, pick up all the papers, come in, and I'll be reading them the next day when he woke up. So they're on the table and I'm there getting ready for breakfast. I open one and there's this center spread And it's all about almost like a Dallas Dynasty thing about the Stringfellow family. And I'm thinking, what the hell's this? And then it was just— they were just tearing him down, basically. And, um, and I, and I didn't know how to deal with it. And in fact, I went to school that day and I just had a really odd day where I've just— I was very, very, very sensitive about it. I can still be quite sensitive sometimes depending on the situation. And, um, and, and it really hit me quite hard, so I struggled at school for for a couple of days, and they more or less told me to, you know, go home and just talk to my parents or something. And we kind of sort of things— and that's when Dad said, look, Scotty, don't take this to heart. This is how they can be. This will be on today, be forgotten tomorrow or the next week. There'll be something else again another time. You've just got to just let it go, let it ride. It says— and sometimes my dad would sometimes tell the press himself, such and such was in the club. And he said, as he said, there's, um, there's nothing worse being talked about than not being talked about. I mean, in those days, absolutely, as you say, the press were everything for every club owner. So it was right that he did that. But coming back to your personal life, there was a time when you say you had a very personal battle with depression. Yeah, that came later on after— yeah, yeah, 19— after my former, my former 3 career more or less came to a stop. '89, because I was looking to go move to another team because I've been with this brilliant Yorkshire team I absolutely loved. But I knew I had to step up a bit if I wanted to go Class A Formula 3 for 1990. I spoke to two of the best teams there, and one of them I was going to go to— I was nearly Mika Salo's teammate, which would have been nice. And, uh, but my dad said, I'm sorry, Scotty, I can't do this. I'm building another club. I need everything I need to do. And that was because he was building Los Angeles. And it takes a lot of money, doesn't it, to be in your world, into the driving world? Extraordinary amounts of money. Let's— well, yeah, but it was getting more so because we were very lucky. I can look back and tell people this now, is that when we did Class B Formula 3 with this small Yorkshire team up north that were punching above the weight to a fair degree, we were doing racing for £90,000 a year for 3 years. He never changed the price, did Jim. He was wonderful. But, uh, I was there looking at going to race for this other team that were looking at— and I had to find 300 grand. Suddenly it was a massive jump, but Dad wasn't, uh, keen to throw 300. Did it upset you that you couldn't go further? Well, the thing is, I, I did something very stupid. I didn't look ahead in '89. I should have invited sponsors, I should have gone out there a bit more, got them in for the following year. But at that point, I didn't know that I wasn't going to stay with Jim and, and this and the other. And I only made decisions late on. It was too late. And when I tried to go find the sponsors with managers, and the managers were okay, they weren't that great, unfortunately. They— one of them was great against the right people and not finishing off. Another one just came to think it was going to be a breeze. And then a lot of the time I was in boardrooms where people saw the name Stringfellow, thought I didn't need the money because I was clearly rich enough. So, you know, I didn't need that, apparently. So, yeah, so as much as it worked for you sometimes, as you've just explained. Oh yeah, yeah, against you. Yeah, yeah, well, doors can close as much as— yeah, who you talk to. And, and well, you, you at the moment, you seem to take it in your stride, which I'm sure that you've had to reconcile. You always go over things, but it can be quite, uh, at that moment it can create a block. But what led to your depression, that moment? It says, if I had known it or known somebody who'd suffered, it's an illness, an illness with no outward signs except for in extreme cases. Poor self-hygiene, that's obvious. It wasn't that bad, but I was struggling to find a way out of my self-disillusionment. It's a lack of self-determination that seems to consume me. Well, yes, at the time it was. It was kind of— I didn't want to go out or go anywhere for a while. This is in '92. I was living in a house in Enfield. My mother and father got divorced. My mother had, um, got a settlement which was quite nice, and she'd got this house. She was going to live near one of her friends Then she met a guy in America and fell madly in love, wants to go over there. And, and there I was left in this house. Um, so my, my mother and my sister and my dad all were all living in America at the time. I was the only one still in England. I'm sorry, I had a little bit of that. Um, I didn't have really proper close friends because when you race, you travel all over. All my friends were in motor racing, and suddenly I wasn't racing myself. And at this point, I wasn't instructing either. I hadn't even started doing that properly. I've done it for a couple of years and then stopped, and I just went into my, uh, kind of receding into myself somewhat. Well, I didn't go anywhere and do anything. In fact, going out, uh, to go and get food was like I really had to push myself. But, you know, without food I wasn't going to do very much. So, um, I really kind of had to push myself. And I think the turning point was where I went— I decided I felt awful and I was ill as well because I just had food poisonings, which wasn't great. And I went out to a Toys 'R' Us to go get a jigsaw jigsaw puzzle. I thought, I need something, I want a jigsaw puzzle. Don't know why, it was just there. And I went to this, and I'm wandering around, I got jeans on, I looked a bit raggy, I've got a black leather jacket, and I'm like a bike jacket or something. And I'm wandering around this Toys R Us, and I must have looked horrendous because I don't think I was looking after myself too well at the time. And, uh, and I'm looking around and I realized I was being followed by the security guard in Toys R Us. And the part of me is thinking, this is weird, because, you know, I'm, I'm not a stealing person, this and the other, and, uh, whatever that is. And I kind of— and I thought, oh God, I just grabbed one and paid for it and left and got home. And it just played on my mind. I thought, that is— and then I took a good look at myself in the mirror. I thought, this is, this is really not good. You've got to do something about this. And I kind of then reached out to my mum and dad Both said at the same, more or less the same time, right, come out to us in America. And I didn't have a dog or a cat or anything. I was on my own in Enfield. And, um, and my dad says, right, you're coming over here, come and spend a bit of time with me. So, yeah, well, Mum wants to be— well, come and stay with me and then go to your mum. She's in South Carolina. My dad was in New York, and I went to New York and I had a crazy time for 2 weeks. And I've met did what Dad did. He just kind of more or less left me to it. At the same time, took me places as well. We traveled about a bit and it was nice. Saw the clubs and nice restaurants. And then after about 2 weeks of that, my mother, who had come up, driven up with her husband because she had family in, in Vermont, so they'd gone there first and then picked me up on the way back. And, uh, and we drove 14 hours all the way back to South Carolina. I spent 2 months in South Carolina, more or less. Just, I mean, I never did a gap year, and that's finding yourself. I've never really understood that. This is the closest I got to it. And but you were— did you feel abandoned at that period of time? Is that what set you— because you've got this enormous family. No, no, no. What was it? What was it that led you to that feeling? Do you recall? Can you— I think it's just— I pinpoint it now. No, no, I just reverted into myself. I just didn't think I needed anybody's help for anything, right? And, um, I wasn't, uh, financially well off, but I wasn't struggling either. I was just going out and doing things. And I managed to, um— I'm trying to remember now if I came back. Yeah, and I did a couple of races the following year. But you weren't in a relationship either? No, I've seen nobody. In fact, I'd seen nobody for a couple of years at that point. And I was just completely on my own. And I'm not going to suddenly try and say I'm selling a sob story because there's people with much worse situations. No, but sometimes this hits all of us. You know, we all have our life's ups and downs. You know, there are struggles and it's not always a financial one. It's not that your parents don't care. It happens. Yeah. And we have to find that point from which we bounce back. Well, it has to be said, I'm a bit of an exponent of the— you've got to stand back to see the wood for the— so you can see the wood for the trees or however that saying goes. And you did that? I kind of— it took me a— to— I kind of realized I had to do that, was just to stand back and go, right, sort your shit out. Yeah, yeah, totally. So you've got to get on in life. Your racing's come to a stop. What are you going to do about it? And, um, and I managed to come back and do some racing, and they were— they was all right. I kept— did one or two races a year and stuff. So my career, I kind stagnated. I still raced, and I started instructing again. And I put down a lot to coming back to life down to instructing, because I got to see all my racing friends again, make some new friends. And I drove some amazing cars on track days that I didn't have to pay for the fuel or the tires or the brakes for. And it was very nice. And it kind of— and then you can— it made me stand back and realize, look, you're, you're lucky. You're lucky you can do this. Let's just get on in life. But that's the, that's the sense we've got about you here. And also So you've got children, you're now with a new partner, or relatively new, which you can tell us about. But what type of father are you? Well, I think it's difficult to say really, because I tried to make myself more accessible than my dad was. I was in a different position when I did the— when my wife and I decided things weren't working out. That was the hardest day of my life, telling my kids I was moving out. But until then, we were doing fine and things were okay. Things personally weren't going great between myself and my wife, but we didn't throw it at the kids. We didn't neglect the children. Even afterwards, we have— we always worked together and realized it didn't work as a relationship. There was no real animosity at all, and we kind of got through our difficult times. Clearly it wasn't wonderful, it wasn't nice to go through all that, and, and then there was a lot of tears and stuff. And, and my kids realized eventually that even though we're apart it wasn't the end of the world. Um, I still took them to, you know, saw them to school afterwards, and the times I had to see them at weekends and a couple of days in a week. And I was working my life around that. So everything else I did, I still got to see my kids. And, um, and we, we all kind of worked together quite well. We even went on holiday to Majorca again as a family without actually being completely together. Oh, lovely. We've only got a short period of time, which I've still got a few questions to ask, but I don't want— I want the audience or the listeners to know where they can buy the book. Well, yeah, well, Amazon is a good starting point. Yeah, but there is also the, um, uh, they change their names from, from something, it's now Lambert and Moody. They're, they're the, uh, online people as well, so you can do it through them. But if you've got a bookshop near you and it's not there Ask them. They are. Awesome. And this is My Dad Was the King of Clubs by Scott Stringfellow. So that's just to remind the listeners where they can get a book. But moving— you're now in a new relationship. Yeah. Uh, you're much more settled. But when you were writing the book, uh, you know, My Dad, you know, sort of was the king of clubs, did you find something out about yourself that you didn't realize, you didn't recognize, or something about your father that surprised you? Um, that, um, for many years was a time where we weren't really seeing a lot of each other when I was racing. I was— for 5 years I didn't see my parents, so I was just getting on with life like everybody does. Yeah, and, uh, you go on with it. And then when I got back involved in the clubs, I kind of learned more about my dad, and we got on really well, uh, as, uh, I was going to say as friends, but yes, we were friends, but also close friends. And I was And we talked a lot just between— in the car, we talked a lot about the club, people within it, people who came in, things about Hampton Club, things he was thinking of doing. And I was party to a lot of his thoughts when nobody else— it was just me and him. And which was good because it's better to have those kind of conversations when others aren't around. He felt as though he could talk to me, and he did. There was many things he told me and I would never repeat. And, um, at the end of the day, he knew that, and he kind of— he became to trust me more and more and realized he still, he still thought I was crazy. I should go out and sell cars or something. And I said, oh, you know, I want to get involved in the clubs. And I, I think he realized it more than me that the clubs really wasn't my world properly. I've grown up with it, I was comfortable with it, and the girl club life was a different world. And he always said, Scotty, don't get involved with the girls, which I never did. I saw other people get involved, and that was stupid. But so did you, did you watch his back basically? Because when somebody's running their business, especially in the club world, did you feel that you were there like his protector as well? No, I wouldn't say that. He didn't need it. He was— he had a shield of his own. He was fine. I was just with him along for the ride a lot of the time. And then he kind of explained things to me when he worked in the club, when he walked in, what he's looking at, what he's doing, how he thinks. So I kind of learned a lot By the way, mine thing— and I tell you what, he wrecked— he saw everything. He would walk in and it was— he knew when something wasn't right. The biggest time there was a problem for Dad, very quickly I'll say, is that when he became more ill with the cancer and everything, his hearing really suffered. And that, if anything, depressed him more than anything because it was important to him— the music and the field conversations, everything. Exactly. Totally. It's deaf in one ear anyway, which is the opposite to my deaf ear, so I just knew I had to stand on his right-hand side. And you've got a deaf ear, have you? Sorry, yes, I, uh, it's— there's very little in it, but it mainly is full of tinnitus. I can hear squealing all the time. And he had the same thing, only in the opposite ear. And, uh, so we kind of knew various things that, uh, we could have— I, I understand where he was going, more or less what I'm saying. So you could understand him, so you were with him? Yeah. And I know that you used to work in the clubs. I know that because, uh, I've been to the clubs. For another reason. Yes, let's say I wasn't one of the dancers. Because I was after Dad, things just deteriorated. No, no, it wasn't for that reason. I'm saying it's just, it's an iconic club. Yeah. And it's such a fascinating club to be in because, you know, you get the essence of the person who builds the club because it's so big. Yeah. What mistakes do you think you've made in the past and that you do not want to pass on to your children? Um, take opportunities when they come your way. Some things you kind of back off just because you're too worried about what other people might— how it's going to affect other people. People are very, um, adaptive. Kids are adapt— and, uh, if you go in a direction and you feel it's going to work, you just try it. Oh, it's, uh, Dad used to say, suck it and see. Sometimes he tried a few things of like different opening hours length thing and it didn't work and he came out, he said, at least we tried it. That was his thing. Yeah. And I kind of got that. And a lot of the times there's things I've kind of held back and not done. I look back and I think, I should have done that. And sometimes you just got to throw yourself forward and just, if it don't work out, it don't work out, and don't hang on to it in your head. I've had to let go of the club out my head and I'm, I'm there now. How did it take? You're pleased that it's gone? And you're happy with that? Well, I think Dad, again, he saw things before everybody else. And, uh, in a long roundabout way, I'm pleased I'm not more involved than I was. Yeah, because it made me an easy step away. Uh, it was an easy call to make. Stadner's no longer part of it. The people at the club there were really trying their best to get— well, not have me so involved. I want to say get rid of me, just, just not be so involved. And at the end of the day, it wasn't really my world. So to step out was the best thing. I just sometimes think, oh gosh, I've done it earlier. Like I say, take the opportunity. But, um, to be honest, it's probably worked at the right time to step out when I did, right? Begin this year, you know, I've been lucky to be one of those people under furlough for a while, and it was hard to do except to make some sacrifices at home and stuff financially. And then got myself out a bit, like a lot of us about to do. And so, and where to next? Well, please, Dad wasn't about for this, because it was doing his head in. No, I'm sure, I'm sure. And because people take the essence of what your father's created and take it in a different direction. But coming back to you, where to next, Scott? It's a wonderful book, and I really urge every listener to read it. There's so much, there's so much more that could be added, and there's so much more we could have had in this conversation, but we're almost at the end. Where to next? Where— what about you? I'll say very quickly before I say where to next is the fact that I am sad that I'm not involved with clubs to a certain degree, because as far as I'm concerned, a Stringfellow's— a Stringfellow's without a Stringfellow isn't Stringfellow's. But yeah, it takes over as more or less just something, but I don't think it'll ever be how it was, unfortunately. No, you're quite right. A Stringfellow's time, basically. But, uh, but from where to next, currently at the moment I'm, I'm back to instructing, uh, Thruxton Racing School. I'm I'm also helping sell Polestar electric road cars, which is really— I'm getting into them. To say I was a bit anti-electric cars, I really like them now. Oh, do you? Because they're paying me, but it's just because I quite like driving the cars. I think they're fantastic. Now, talking about electric cars, um, I had a brief introduction because it's not my world, but I love the concept of the electric, uh, racing car. Okay, now we'll tell me about that, because electric racing cars, they said people don't like them, and I hear that, uh, in your voice, because they don't have the petrol smell nor the sound. It's not that. What is it? It's the sound of them. And I don't think racing cars on tight street circuits all the time, you're not gonna get the most out of it. The overtaking opportunities are so minimal. I'm not a massive fan of them. I mean, obviously I'm still involved with British Touring Cars doing the safety car and I have been for 17 years now, and I'm going to carry on doing that. And I do enjoy the real motor racing, has to be said. There is a time for electric cars, but they've got to develop a bit more yet. And I'm hoping that there will be other formula that come to the racetracks when they can do that. Right now, I've seen them a couple of times on TV, the electric racing, and I, I'm not a fan at the moment of the racing. Road cars, great idea. We're having to change our whole lives, we're all having to change, so It's coming, we just got to deal with it. But the racing cars thing will come too, but hopefully it'll work out along the way. It's just down to how well it's going to be. So your next book could be, well, about, about cars. Clearly you know so much, and it's fascinating as, as far as I'm concerned. I love people who are enthusiastic and passionate to tell me about something that I don't know about. Well, very quickly, I'm, I'm actually more than halfway through about my own racing career. Ah, fabulous. So then, well, also I'm writing detective, uh, one. Like I say, I liked all that stuff, so I'm doing one of those. There was another one that's a bit sci-fi. I've kind of come to a stop recently, but I've got about— I've been writing about 3 or 4 different books on the go. Oh, fabulous! And I'm so pleased you are, because your enthusiasm actually carries you through. If you were to, you know, in those moments when you've lost a parent that you've been close to— your parents do have this amazing impact on our worlds, we all know that. Do you hear your father speaking to you? And if so, what does he say to you? Uh, more for another— you want to think about it, Scotty. You know, basically, wait, hang on, just stand back. Uh, I get a bit of that in my head. And, uh, yeah, I miss him terribly, absolutely terrible. Some days worse than others, but most of the time fine now, and I can cope with a lot more. I've still got my mother, and I ring her every day. Oh, how wonderful. So Scott Stringfellow, thank you so, so much for this fabulous interview. You're just such a wonderful person to interview, and your book is My Dad Was the King of Clubs. Thank you again and look forward to speaking to you personally. All right, thank you very much. You've been brilliant. Thank you, Maria.