Lifelong Blue and City Magazine regular Kevin Cummins, one of this country’s best photographers, was approached by iconic magazine The Face to document this fascinating craze.
Says Cummins: “The guy with Frankenstein’s monster was called Eli, a friend of mine, who would always carry ‘Frank' fully inflated to every game. We would often get stopped by the police when driving to away games, for having a 6ft ‘monster’ in the back seat - or sometimes through the sun roof - of his car.
“Every week it was a battle to get him through the turnstile, when the local constabulary would ask to see his ticket, then debate whether he should be allowed in without one, as he’d probably be taking up a seat.
“Watching football back then definitely wasn’t like it is today, but City fans helped to alleviate the gloom around the game with this bonkers idea.
“It took off really quickly and reached its peak, when the actual City team ran out clutching giant bananas at Stoke on Boxing Day, to the delight of over 12,000 banana-waving City fans.
“It’s great to see the banana craze has been passed on to different generations of Blues too.”