It’s one of Tyneside’s best-known names.

Over the last few decades, Newcastle’s Sayers family has become entrenched in Tyneside folklore after brothers John Henry and Stephen Sayers earned serious hard men reputations.

But what is their back story?

The book A Breed Apart, written by cousins Tony Sayers and Eddie Lennie, examines the family’s past as street traders. Indeed, trader Albert Sayers is well-known today for his lengthy tenure on Newcastle’s Northumberland Street.

And the book comes right up to date, shining new light on some familiar events and characters, such as what became known as The Battle of Percy Street in 1963 and Viv Graham’s reign over Tyneside.

Newcastle street trader Albert Sayers, July 1983
Newcastle street trader Albert Sayers, July 1983

The book is edited by Steve Wraith who says: “The book has had tongues wagging and has caused huge debate online. It touches on crime through the ages on Tyneside and the fight for legislation of street trading in the City.

“One story that has become part of Geordie folklore is of the fight that never happened behind Viv Graham and Lee Duffy from Middlesbrough. This book reveals the truth behind that story for the first time. Another section is called the Mean Streets Of Newcastle.”

Here are a couple of extracts from the book A Breed Apart, by Tony Sayers and Eddie Lennie.

VIV GRAHAM AND LEE DUFFY: THE BIGGEST FIGHT THAT NEVER WAS

“One episode that could have altered the status quo, however, was the fight that never happened. A young giant of a fella from Teesside called Lee Duffy had burst onto the scene, and his reputation was spreading throughout the North East like wildfire. Lee had run into our John in jail and they became friends. John had asked Lee to look out for his brother Michael on his moves around the prison system. And so it came about that Lee Duffy and Michael Sayers got to know each other as they crossed paths in the prison population, having met while both serving a four-year sentence.

They had both been sentenced on the same day, for separate offences of affray, and were due to be released at the same time. Lee, however, received a further six months for bashing a screw and, as a result served, a half a stretch longer than Michael. Upon his delayed release, Michael and Hymee (the gigglers), were asked by Stephen, who had yet to meet Lee, to go down to Eston with a bung for him to help him get on his feet. The Duffer, as we called him, ended up spending many a weekend in the town, often in the West End. He was a fearsome individual and like all hardmen, he feared no one, least of all this Viv Graham he was hearing so much about. It was on one such weekend that he decided he would take a walk into the city centre and ‘put it on’ Viv there and then, right on his own doorstep.

Fuelled by a two-day bender holding court with the crowd who’d been on it with him, he marched his pumped up drinking partners down the town like the Pied Piper, in search of the Big Fella, with one thing on his mind. He sparked half a dozen doormen on Viv’s firm that night, and let them all know that he was looking for their guv’nor.

Viv didn’t put an appearance in and Lee felt he’d won a moral victory. It did little to ease the tension between Viv and the West End lads and served only to put more distance between them. The lines were becoming blurred as the mutual respect between Viv and our lads was being tested by the actions of others, people who were in our orbit, and in some cases even people from within our family.

God only knows what might have happened that night if Viv had fallen into the trap of fronting up The Duffer. It was a potential fight that everyone talked about, but one that never came to fruition, but if it had, it would have been a fight to end all fights, and with hearts the size of those two, it might well have been a fight to the death.

In spite of everything that was going on in Newcastle at that time, we can only speak as we find, and although Viv made countless enemies in his time as a serious figure on Tyneside, he had always been civil whenever we met him, and for every enemy he undoubtedly made, he made twice as many friends, not least of all from within our ranks.

Unfortunately however, the pressure cooker that was Newcastle in the early 90s was about to explode for Viv. On New Year’s Eve 1993, he was violently gunned down on Wallsend High Street, virtually on the stroke of midnight. He was shot three times by an unidentified gunman and died in the early hours of New Year’s Day, aged just 34. RIP, Viv.

A huge investigation ensued and many people were dragged in for questioning, including some of our lads, but with such a string of obvious enemies left in his wake, Viv’s murder became one of several unsolved crimes that occurred during that turbulent decade.”

Front cover of 'A Breed Apartt' a book about the history of the Sayers family from Newcastle
Front cover of 'A Breed Apartt' a book about the history of the Sayers family from Newcastle

THE MEAN STREETS OF NEWCASTLE

“Although many of these events were not directly part of our lives, they were explosive events which were going on around us, typical of what was occurring on the mean streets of our city.

It’s easy to bullet point much of what was happening on the streets back then, a violent and terrifying period of warfare that has gone down in gangland folklore:

Howard Mills: Boxer, doorman; leg blown off by shotgun, 1989

Michael Sayers: Shot several times through a window while drinking in the New Darnell public house, 1993

Harry Orange: Caught in the crossfire of the attack on Michael

Viv Graham: Assassinated, New Year’s Eve 1993

Frankie Kelly Jr: Shot in Macey’s Bar, 23 December 1995

John Brian Sayers (John Sr): Shot in the face at close range 1995

Paul Logan: delivery driver; shot dead in Shotley Bridge, December 1995

Freddie Knights: Shot dead on his mother’s doorstep, 2000

Peter Gowling: Shot dead in his flat, Valentine’s Day, 2001

We’re not speaking out of school in relation to any of the dreadful incidents that took place during that period. They are all well documented and the details we’ve outlined are available in the public domain. However, with the exception of one of the above, many of those incidents and tragic losses of life remain, to this day, like so many other violent crimes at that time, unsolved mysteries.

Meanwhile, the war between the Harrisons and the Conroys in the early 1990s is now also part of Tyneside folklore.

It was all part and parcel of what our streets had become. A long way from the days of back street ‘jump ups’ and selling a bit of hoist to a barrow boy, some of whom had now also become bad boys themselves.

The local newspapers were full of what was going on, and the publicity only served to fuel speculation and enhance reputations, as shootings, stabbings, back stabbings and double crossings were rife, and more and more risks were being taken in the fight to become the main players in the city.

For the Sayers, the reputation they now possessed would go on to be one that would definitely be ‘tried and tested at the highest level’.”

  • The book A Breed Apart is available from The Back Page, Waterstones and WH Smith in Newcastle. The book can also be ordered from www.thesayers.co.uk