Girls In Hawaii pay tribute to their late manager at the Botanique: “He could move mountains”
The event “Tellement Dommage, Pierre” will take place on Tuesday 27 September, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., on the Parc du Botanique stage in Brussels. In addition to the 45-minute Girls In Hawaii concert, there will also be performances by Ada Oda, An Pierlé, Antoine Hénaut, Françoiz Breut, Gérald Genty, Jawhar, Lo Bailly, Romano Nervoso and Sharko, chaining together short performances of a quarter of an hour. hour. One or the other collaboration on the boards is not excluded. The evening is organized for the benefit of the non-profit organization La Casa, a reception association for children in difficulty, located in Braine-le-Comte and close to Pierre and his family. Access to the show is free from 10 euros. Over 500 tickets have already been sold.
So many tributes
Pierre Van Braekel was at the origin of the Nada agency as well as the labels 62TV Records and Trente Juillet. The long and beautiful story with the Girls began with the receipt of a simple CD-R, recordable disc from another time, told us his colleague and friend Philippe Decosterwho had known him for forty years. “Self-sacrifice”, “benevolence”, “humor”, “passion”, “professionalism” are some salient words from the tributes of the sector which have flourished online.
Reunited thanks to Pierre
“It was important for a lot of people to come together in his memory and have a musical moment.“, explained to us Antoine Wielemanssinger of the group Girls In Hawaii, whose recent personal project was also “managed” by Pierre Van Braekel. “It’s nice to live a moment thinking of him and to meet lots of old faces that we haven’t seen for a long time, telling ourselves that what brings us together that evening is Pierre“, he comments.
Titles that make sense
“I’m going to integrate a few covers that pleased Pierre and also Philippe“, entrusts Giacomo Panarisisinger with the features made up by Romano Nervoso, who is planning a punk “medley” style set. Same story at David Bartholomewembodying him Sharko: “I plan to do old songs from my repertoire that connect me to Pierre“, he anticipates.
A talent scout
“For me, Pierre was much more than an agent. We’ve known each other since 1997.“, resituates David. “I met him at the end of the Concours Circuit (won at that time under the name of Nose Kitchen, editor’s note). He waited for the third level of the competition to tell me all the good things he thought about my project“, laughs Sharko. “I didn’t know who he was, but I knew that this big guy had been watching me for three concerts without saying a word. It was on the third floor that he told me he would go a long way with me. We haven’t left each other for 25 years“, loose the singer. “They were two and then three to believe it very quickly, he was among the very first, really. When it still looked like nothing and he saw that it looked like something“, he recalls.
Beyond expectations
For the Girls, the meeting with the man who would become their manager goes back to their beginnings, at the turn of the millennium. The collaboration lasted for two decades for the group and continued in parallel for two years for Antoine Wielemans in solo. “Pierre had been stressed when he received the models of my project. He said to himself: ‘If I don’t like it, it will be complicated to manage’“, laughs Antoine. “Strangely, on this project, he was almost more motivated than me. At first, I did it a bit for myself, to learn how to compose in French. I had a form of shyness, modesty. I didn’t particularly want to do a lot of concerts. But he is a manager, so it was the opposite desire: to make it as visible as possible. He pushed me to my limits, and finally, we will have done fifty concerts, three clips, a lot of interviews. It was beyond my expectations“, observes the artist afterwards.
