His father, John (1946–2018), was a hod carrier, and his mother, Carol, worked in a factory. He was named Paul John Gascoigne in tribute to Paul McCartney and John Lennon of the Beatles. He attended Breckenbeds Junior High School, then the Heathfield Senior High School, both in the Low Fell area of Gateshead. He was noticed by football scouts while playing for Gateshead Boys, though failed to impress in a trial at Ipswich Town. Further trials at Middlesbrough and Southampton also proved unsuccessful, before the team he supported, Newcastle United, signed him as a schoolboy in 1980. Gascoigne frequently got into trouble with his friend Jimmy "Five Bellies" Gardner. The pair were even taken to court and fined over a hit and run incident. Newcastle chairman Stan Seymour Jr. described Gascoigne as "George Best without brains". While Gascoigne was successful on the football field, his childhood was marked by instability and tragedy. Initially, his family lived in a single upstairs room in a council house with a shared bathroom, and moved several times during his early life. When he was ten, Gascoigne witnessed the death of Steven Spraggon, the younger brother of a friend, who was killed in a traffic collision. Around this time, his father began to suffer from seizures. Gascoigne began developing obsessions and twitches, and was taken into therapy at age ten, but soon quit the therapy sessions after his father expressed doubts over the treatment methods. Gascoigne developed an addiction to gaming machines, frequently spending all his money on them, and also began shoplifting to fund his addiction. He experienced further tragedy when a friend, whom he had encouraged to join Newcastle United from Middlesbrough, died whilst he was working for Gascoigne's uncle on a building site. Paul Ferris was a Northern Irish footballer, later a physiotherapist, lawyer and businessman, who was scouted by Newcastle United and signed at the age of sixteen in the 1980s (he would later be the assistant physiotherapist of the club after receiving his qualifications). In his autobiography, Ferris recalls passing the ball to Gascoigne while they were playing in a trial match, looking for a one-two which would have put him through on the goalkeeper had Gascoigne returned the ball. Instead the fourteen-year-old Gascoigne put his foot on the ball, stared straight at Ferris and shouted "Fuck off. If you don't pass to me then I'm not passing to you."