The Advisory Board
The members of the Advisory Board are all leading Belgian professionals in music and the media. They have kindly agreed to endorse The Belgian Beatles Society and to devote some of their precious time to supporting and counselling the Core Team on the development and implementation of the Society's activities.
The Advisory Board is our Quality Label.
The Advisory Board is composed of
Jan Hautekiet, Dan Lacksman, Alain Pire, Thierry Plas and Marc Ysaye.
| Jan Hautekiet | |
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One could say that Jan Hautekiet is to Flanders what Marc Ysaye is to the French speaking part of Belgium, being both a successful musician and respected radio and television personality. Jan began his career at the Flemish public broadcasting corporation VRT in 1979 as a producer for Radio 1. In 1983, he was part of the team who pioneered the launch of Studio Brussel, VRT's radio station aimed at a younger audience. Over the years, Jan became a very high profile radio personality, notably through his irreverent "Hallo Hautekiet" show, while taking on various management positions at the VRT. A trained musician (from chamber music to jazz), Jan Hautekiet is a highly appreciated pianist/keyboardist as well as composer, arranger and producer. Jan performed and recorded with innumerable Belgian artists and, with the house band of the "De Laatste Show" television talk show, with the likes of Warren Zevon and Sting. |
| Dan Lacksman | |
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Dan Lacksman started in the music business in 1969 as a tape operator and shortly thereafter became a sound engineer at Studio Madeleine, Brussels. Dan introduced the synthesizer to Belgian pop music in 1970. One of his first synthesizers featured prominently on Johan Verminnen's major hit "Laat me nu toch niet alleen", which they co-wrote. This synthesizer, a modular Moog III P, is identical to the one George Harrison bought in 1968 and that was intensively used on the Beatles' Abbey Road album. It is now part of a large collection of vintage analog synthesizers still available at Synsound studios, which Dan founded in Brussels in 1980. Throughout the 1970s, Dan worked as an engineer and synthesizer specialist with artists such as Plastic Bertrand, Patrick "Born to be alive" Hernandez and Thijs Van Leer. As from 1971, he also recorded under his own name. In 1978 Marc Moulin, Michel Moers and Dan founded the techno group Telex, which produced international hits such as "Moskow Diskow". They also participated, but not very seriously, in the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest. With Moulin, Dan co-produced Lio and her mega hit "Le Banana Split". In 1993, Dan Lacksman initiated and produced the "Deep Forest" project, which became a huge hit worldwide. In 1995, Dan opened a second Synsound studio in an old brewery next to the first one. Over the years these studios have been used by artists such as Arno, Alain Chamfort, Clouseau, Marie Daulne (Zap Mama), Thomas Dolby, Hooverphonic, Maurane, Eros Ramazzotti, Youssou N'Dour, Sparks and Will Tura, to name just a few. Also see: A Belgian Apple Scruff |
| Alain Pire | |
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Alain Pire, Professor in New Technologies at the Haute Ecole Namuroise Catholique and Ph. D. in Cultural Anthropology (subject: "Anthropology of Psychedelic Music"), is also a guitarist with a rich musical career. Among others, he played and recorded with Jo Lemaire + Flouze, "Ladies sing the blues" (with Dani Klein and BJ Scott), Elisa Waut, Such a Noise, Huy!, 48 Cameras and the Michel Drucker Expérience.In addition, Alain was a member of Burning Plague, in which he joined Marc Ysaye, when this Belgian blues band re-emerged with a new line-up in the second half of the 90s. Since 1987, Alain has been a member of the highly successful Belgian Beatles cover group Abbey Road. www.abbey-road.be |
| Thierry Plas | |
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Thierry Plas, who studied guitar and photography, is undoubtedly one of Belgium's best-known and respected guitarists. At the age of 21, he joined Marc Ysaye in the Belgian "Eurock" group Machiavel after their Urban Games album (1979), at a time when the band was going through fundamental (personnel) changes, and looking for a new direction. This led to more of a hard rock sound, combined with greater maturity and simplicity, culminating in the hit single "Fly" from their 1980 album New Lines. In 2010, Thierry embarked on yet another adventure: The Tailors Of Panama. |
| Marc Ysaye | |
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One could say that Marc Ysaye is to the French-speaking part of Belgium what Jan Hautekiet is to the Flemish, being both a successful musician and respected radio and television personality. |