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John Giles bypasses football to talk fashion and music from the Swinging Sixties

Tonight at CityWest Dublin, the John Giles Foundation has organised a 'Freedom of Dublin' charity...



John Giles bypasses football t...
Soccer

John Giles bypasses football to talk fashion and music from the Swinging Sixties

Tonight at CityWest Dublin, the John Giles Foundation has organised a 'Freedom of Dublin' charity fashion show to raise money for the JGF and for the Capuchin Day Centre, which is run to help the homeless.

Before the event, the Leeds and Ireland legend dropped into Off The Ball for Thursday night football and before getting into the thick of the football action, reminisced about the fashion and music of the Swinging Sixties - a decade in which he was at Man United and Leeds.

John admitted his own interest in some of the memorable fashion choices of the '60s was muted in comparison to some of his team-mates.

"I had some of the gear but not the outrageous gear. I went along with some of it but I wasn't really into it like some of the London lads for example," he said, before touching on music which he said he was more aware of than the fashion, also citing '50s crooners like Frank Sinatra and Eddie Fisher among his favourites.

John Giles (r) managing West Brom in 1984 Picture by: S&G / S&G and Barratts/EMPICS Sport

"First of all the music. English groups took over. Before that in the '50s, in my time you had all the American singers and the occasional English singer would copy what they were singing and make a hit of it in England. They weren't the big stars.

"Of course then the Beatles came along and they took over America as we know. So that was all part of the Swinging Sixties. It was a huge change but I must say it didn't affect me very much. I was too into the football to be honest."

He added that the British Invasion bands like The Beatles "got rid of all my favourites like Eddie Fisher and Perry Como" once their success took hold.

"Once the rock and roll era went off the boil a bit, then [the '50s singers] came back again. Sinatra for example was unbelievable," he said. 

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