Sting reopens Bataclan one year after Paris attacks1:27
Rock star Sting headlines a concert at Bataclan music hall to mark the venue's reopening a year after the November 13 Paris attacks.
American rock group Eagles of Death Metal performing on stage on November 13, 2015 at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris, just a few moments before four men armed with assault rifles and shouting "Allahu akbar" ("God is great!") stormed into the venue and opened fire. Picture: AFP / Marion Ruszniewski
MEMBERS of Eagles of Death Metal, the US group who were playing when jihadists attacked Paris’ Bataclan concert hall last year, have been turned away from the venue’s reopening show over controversial remarks by their lead singer.
“They came, I threw them out — there are things you can’t forgive,” Bataclan co-director Jules Frutos said on Saturday.
Mr Frutos’ comments came after Sting headlined a reopening show to mark one year since 90 people were massacred at the venue during a gig by the Californian band.
Hundreds of yards of barricades, extensive body searches and scores of armed police greeted those lucky enough to get a ticket. The Bataclan said all 1000 Sting tickets sold out quickly and other tickets were given to the families of the 90 revellers slain a year ago by extremists with automatic weapons and explosive belts.
Eagles frontman Jesse Hughes — one of the two band members denied entry to the Sting concert — caused dismay in France earlier this year by suggesting Muslim staff at the Bataclan were involved in the gun and suicide bomb attack there on November 13, 2015.
Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes at Bluesfest in Byron Bay. Picture: by Luke Marsden.Source:News Corp Australia
Before the concert Frutos said that he was sick of listening to Hughes’ conspiracy theories.
“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,” Mr Frutos said.
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.
The claims tarnished the band’s image and enraged the Bataclan’s managers, who strongly rejected the charges.
Invitations for EODM to play a number of French summer music festivals were also swiftly withdrawn.
Before he made the claims, Hughes told AFP that he wanted to be the first to play at the Bataclan. Hughes and his band have returned to Paris twice since the attack, to share the stage with U2 in December and to play the Olympia concert hall in February in front of many of the survivors.
People leave the Bataclan concert hall in Paris on November 12, 2016, after the reopening concert by British musician Sting to mark the first anniversary of the November 13 Paris attacks. Picture: AFP / Francois Guillot.Source:AFP
Sting playing at the Bataclan during the reopening concert to mark the first anniversary of the November 13 Paris attacks. Picture: AFP / David Wolff Patrick.Source:AFP
The singer will be present outside the concert hall on Sunday for the unveiling of a plaque to the victims of the attack by French President Francois Hollande and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
The Bataclan bloodbath was one of a series of gun and suicide bomb attacks across the French capital that night that left 130 people dead.
In a statement on Saturday, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the attacks would remain “forever etched in our hearts”.
“They wanted to attack France. But on that tragic night, we Europeans and citizens across the world were all French,” Juncker said.
Various memorial activities are planned throughout Sunday in the French capital at the scenes of the co-ordinated terrorist attacks across Paris, in which a total of 130 people died.
In addition to those killed, nine people remain in hospital from the attacks and others are paralysed or otherwise irreparably injured. The government says more than 600 people are still receiving psychological treatment related to the attacks.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, in a commentary given to a half-dozen European newspapers, warned that “Yes, terrorism will strike us again.” But, he contended that “we have all the resources to resist and all the strength to win.”
— with wires