Apple ID password to deleted email address which has been forgotten

If you have a current iCloud ID that is a newer version of the old ID (and not an entirely new ID), go to https://appleid.apple.com, click Manage my Apple ID and sign in with your current iCloud ID. Click edit next to the primary email account, change it back to your old email address and save the change. Then edit the name of the account to change it back to your old email address. You can now use your current password to turn off Find My iPhone and delete the old account. Then go back to https://appleid.apple.com and change your primary email address and iCloud ID name back to the way it was.

If the old ID is not an older version of your current iCloud ID, you'll have to contact Apple for assistance resetting the password, either by going to https://expresslane.apple.com, then click More Products and Services>Apple ID>Other Apple ID Topics>Lost or forgotten Apple ID password, or by contacting the Apple account security team: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5699.

You're welcome.

I have this same problem after an update. The Apple ID has NEVER been changed, I just cannot recall which password was used to activate the phone. I keep getting the message that the email address cannot be used. I am confused as this has never been changed. iCloud was never set up and any attempt to log into it on the PC prompts me to set it up from the iPhone that I cannot activate. I cannot access ANY settings on the phone, least of all Cloud...

I think this phone is now a brick.

What happens if I buy a new phone and try to restore it, surely I will be led straight back into this vicious circle....?