Wooden parts about five seats back (6)
I believe the answer is:
staves
'wooden parts' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'about five seats back' is the wordplay.
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'five' becomes 'V' (Roman numeral).
'back' says the letters should be written backwards.
'v' inserted into 'seats' is 'sevats'.
'sevats' written backwards gives 'STAVES'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for staves that I've seen before include "Barrel pieces; verses" , "Series of horizontal lines on which musical notes are written" , "Lines in a music score" , "Curved strips of wood in barrel" , "Verses. stanzas" .)