It began with two boys from a council estate in Sunderland — a “couple of scruffies”, to use their own description — trying to raise a few quid from what kids of a certain generation will know as “Guying”. Bonfire Night was approaching. School was finished for the day and the boys were positioned strategically with their Guy Fawkes doll outside the best hotel in town.



The date was October 19, 1984. They had made their Guy from a pillowcase stuffed with newspaper, a school jumper and a pair of battered old corduroys. The face was drawn on with their mum’s lipstick. Their mantra was “Penny for the Guy?” and, to begin with, 11-year-old Craig Bromfield and his 13-year-old brother, Aaron, didn’t realise they might have hit the jackpot when a group of men came into view wearing red tracksuit tops, with Adidas stripes on the sleeves and “some kind of flower” on the chest.



The flower was actually the tree...