Rock star Sting on Saturday reopened the Bataclan, the Paris concert hall where militants killed 90 people, with a hugely symbolic and emotional show to mark the first anniversary of France’s bloodiest terror attack.
However, the concert hall’s codirector said he had prevented two members of the US group Eagles of Death Metal, who were on stage when the bloodshed started on Nov. 13, last year, from entering.
“They came, I threw them out — there are things you can’t forgive,” Bataclan codirector Jules Frutos said, furious at Eagles frontman Jesse Hughes for his claims that some of the venue’s Muslim security men were complicit in the attack.
Photo: AP / Universal Music
“He makes these incredibly false declarations every two months. It is madness, accusing our security of being complicit with the terrorists... Enough. Zero. This has to stop,” Frutos added.
Hughes, a rare right-wing rocker and supporter of US president-elect Donald Trump, has also said without evidence that Muslims were celebrating outside during the venue during the siege.
However the band’s manager Marc Pollack denied members of the group had tried to enter the Bataclan, telling Billboard magazine: “Jesse did not even try to enter the room for the concert of Sting.”
In a brief e-mail Pollack said that the information was “false,” and that he had “no comment.”
Sting began what had been billed as “the toughest gig in rock” with a minute’s silence for the 130 people who lost their lives in a night of Islamic State gun and bomb attacks across the French capital.
The British singer — who spoke French throughout the gig — told the crowd that “we will not forget them” before launching into a set that walked a the line between celebration and reflection.
“Tonight we have two tasks to achieve,” he said. “First to remember those who lost their lives in the attack, and then to celebrate life and music in this historic place.”
Scores of survivors of the Bataclan assault attended the packed concert, the dominant event in a weekend of otherwise low-key commemorations.
Among them was Aurelien, in his thirties, determined to have a good night despite the pain of returning to the scene of so much horror.
“It’s the first time I’ve been in a public space for a year. I haven’t been to the cinema, to a concert. I get my shopping delivered,” he said.
“Tonight I’m taking my life back like it was before. It’s a duty, there’s an obligation to be here — because there are 90 people who can’t come anymore,” he added.
“It was very hard to be here at first, but now it’s going a bit better — I’m drinking my beer and I’m hoping to have a good time,” he said.
Having paid tribute to the late singers David Bowie and Leonard Cohen, Sting introduced a new song Inshallah (Arabic for “God willing”) about the refugee crisis.
“This song is about a family on a boat trying to get to Europe,” Sting said. “I don’t have a solution for the migrant crisis, but I think we can find one through empathy.”
The biggest applause of the night was for Desert Rose, a song Sting originally recorded with Algerian singer Cheb Mami.
More than 250 survivors and victims’ families attended the concert.
Yesterday, the actual anniversary of the attacks, French President Francois Hollande and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo were to unveil plaques outside the Bataclan as well as the other locations that were targeted — the Stade de France, as well as restaurants and bars.
Hughes is expected at the Bataclan ceremony.
One year on, nine people out of the about 400 who were injured in the attacks are still in hospital.
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