The Brick

Paul Debrick was one of football’s hardest hooligans. For twenty years he stood at the forefront of one of the country’s most feared mobs: the Middlesbrough Frontline.

Bouncer, bodybuilder, brawler and top boy, he has been shot at, gassed, stabbed, arrested and jailed.

After an unsettled childhood on Middlesbrough’s rough Hemlington estate, Debrick took to terrace warfare like a natural. His ‘casual’ mob took over from the donkey-jacket-and-pitboot thugs of the Seventies just as hooliganism was entering a new era. Unlike many of his crew, he disliked football: his motivation was purely violence and the thrill of leading one of the most notorious firms around.

With the Frontline, The Brick battled his way through virtually every major mob in the country. As direct as a punch to the jaw, he tells it like it was, from knifings and beatings to drugs, working the doors and serving time in jail. The Brick is a shocking insight into the mindset of a hooligan leader.

Reviews:

‘Ex-bouncer Brick likes serious disorder and his cheerful account of smashing up half of Europe with his pals backs this up with no end of evidence.’ LOADED