The Brick

Paul Debrick was one of football's hardest hooligans. For twenty years he stood at the head of one of the country's most feared firms: the Middlesbrough Frontline. A bouncer, bodybuilder, brawler and 'top boy', he has been shot at, gassed, stabbed, arrested and jailed. 


They call him simply The Brick. 


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 fellow hoolies in the so-called Frontline Crew, he actually disliked football: his motivation was purely violence and the thrill of leading one of the most notorious firms around. 


As direct as a punch to the jaw, he tells it like it was, from knifings and beatings to working the doors and serving time in jail. 'The Brick' is a shocking insight into the mindset of a hooligan leader.