Music News

The Bataclan Reopens One Year After the Terrorist Attacks

It was late in the afternoon on Friday, November 13, 2015, that news reached North America that gunmen had opened fired on the crowd at an Eagles of Death Metal show at the Bataclan theatre in Paris. The atrocity was part of a multi-pronged assault on the city. When it was all over, 130 people were dead, the majority of which were at the gig.

The theatre remained closed for a year so that extensive renovations could be carried out. Last night, music returned to the building as Sting (under heavy security) became the first artist to appear on its stage since the attacks. CNN reports:

The Bataclan, the music venue where 90 concertgoers were killed in last year’s Paris terror attacks, reopened Saturday with a performance from Sting.

Following a minute of silence, Sting told the audience in French: “We shall not forget them,” about the victims.
Sting performed an 18-song, two-encore set that began with “Fragile.” (Full setlist here.)
There were reports that Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes was denied entry last night but a report from Billboard refutes that.

A report out of Paris claiming that two Eagles of Death Metal members, including frontman Jesse Hughes, were forced to leave Sting’s concert at the Bataclan Saturday night (Nov. 12), has been denied by the band’s manager. The show marks the reopening of the club a year after the terrorist attack that killed 89 people. Eagles of Death Metal was the band playing at the venue last year, on Nov. 13, 2015, when the tragedy occurred.

In a statement to Billboard, Marc Pollack, of The MGMT Company, says that Hughes “never even tried entering the club for Sting’s show.” He further notes:

“This day is not about Jesse Hughes or Eagles of Death Metal. In fact, Jesse is in Paris to share in remembering the tragic events of a year ago with his friends, family and fans. This is about recalling the tragic loss of life that happened right in front of his eyes during his show, and this coward Jules Frutos feels the need to soil his own club’s reopening by spreading false tales to the press, and tainting a wonderful opportunity that could’ve been used to spread peace and love, to further spread mean spirited words of hate. Jesse never even tried entering the club for Sting’s show tonight.”

So what has changed in the last year? Here’s more from Billboard:

It’s been a year since the wave of attacks in Paris that resulted in the deaths of 130 that night, a harrowing evening during which we were glued to our devices as the death toll rose and the enormity of the coordinated assaults on the venue, the Stade de France and on Parisian restaurants and cafés came into focus. That kind of shock to the system tends to result in a paradigm shift in which we change the way we do simple things, like going through airport security, or walking into a rock club for a night of loud, stress-free revelry.

Have we changed in the past year? Billboard got together a panel of security experts, club owners and music fans to ask them how their lives have shifted since Bataclan and what the future looks like in the wake of that terrifying night.

Continue reading.

 

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 39690 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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