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THE STORY OF CHARLIE BELAIR
Do you remember Blue Blot? You do! Well, then you surely do remember one of their topsongs 'No, no, no'. This is the story of the guy who wrote the song and was one of the founders of that band, Charlie Belair.
At the age of 10 his father wanted him to go into showbizz. Learning guitar in only three months he started performing solo. When he was 13, he had his first 7-piece band singing covers.
But this was only the beginning! He's dad send him to the balletschool to learn the basics for dancing later on. This was useful when he joined the cast of the musical Hair and later on Jesus Christ Superstar in the beginning of the 70's performing in Belgium, France, Greece, Germany. Afterwards he met François Glorieux who invited him to join his Panoramic Trio as a guitarplayer and percussionist performing all over Europe.
Although being a musician he also appeared sometimes as a fashion- and photomodel. At the age of 17 he started writing his own songs but they will be only recorded several years later. First with J.Vincent Edwards, later on with Plastic Bertrand as his producer. Charlie wrote songs for the first album of Boogie Boy and in 1985 when he formed Blue Blot together with Luc Walter Junior, he wrote several songs on their first album 'Shopping for Love'. No, no, no is one of the well known tunes.
In the beginning of the 90's he starts his own booking agency organizing events, working with artists such as Toots Thielemans, Hot Chocolat, Status Quo,... But his successful business comes to an end when after 10 years he has a burnout. Then he decides to stop and goes to Botswana to recover. There he has been working as a volunteer with disabled children. While he's there the Belgian television makes a 25 minutes documentary of the Aids problem and the help that has been offered by people like Charlie.
Back home he keeps on performing and writing songs. In 2010 he puts up a showcase trying out a number of new songs. But it’s only when he gets back together with his friend Jo Cassiers that his songs begin to get alive. So they decide to work on his own compositions to release a full album by the end of 2011.