‘I collect these, then I put them in my album.’

One fan of the legendary British band The Beatles has amassed quite a collection of articles over the last 20 years, since he was just a small child.

Nguyen Truong Son, who works at the Terracotta Resort near Mui Ne Beach in Phan Thiet province, first began collecting Beatles articles in the 1990s.

"It’s my hobby. In 1970, when my brother came back from Germany, he brought home many CDs from Europe, one of which had some Beatles’ songs on it, including the tune, Ob-La Di, Ob-La-Da," says Son.

Since then, Son’s close friends, including drummer Trong Phan, his brother and guitarist Trong Phat and others have practised hard to learn the songs, so they can both entertain themselves and sing them at weddings and celebrations.

Since 1971, in weddings across Ha Noi, the song Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da has often been played. Before that, even the most "advanced" groups playing at weddings in Ha Noi only used to play songs by the group, The Shadow.

At that time, Son had with him a radio cassette player a relative had sent to him from France. Many of The Beatle’s songs played on the radio, including All My Loving, Nowhere Man, Let It Be and Yesterday, and they made Son feel closer to the group.

This is one reason he holds onto all of his beloved souvenirs of the band.

Son also recognised on his cassette many of The Beatles’ songs, including Green Fields and Speak Softly, Love, that had been translated by musician Le Huu Ha in Vietnamese and sung by the group May Trang (White Cloud). In 1975, when Son went to France to see a friend, he asked for money from his mother to buy a pair of Levi’s jeans, but when he got their he spent it all on the album Let It Be.

"I consider it the first estate of a 10-year-old boy, and I still have it with me now," Son says.

Another thing that pushes Son to collect articles about the band is that the group is often mentioned in the country’s media, in particular the The Thao & Van Hoa (Sport&Culture) newspaper. Ninety per cent of his collected articles have been found in this newspaper.

"I collect these articles all the time, no matter where I am. Even on a plane or in a cafe. Then I put them in my album," he says.

Son admits that The Beatles music sounds very strange to him.

"However, the more I listen to them, the more enchanted I become."

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News