Ten years ago, the night of the Bataclan. The news, the stories
If you work in music, the possibility of being called back into service on a Friday evening to write about explosions, shootings, attacks by special forces and body counts is something you only contemplate in your worst nightmare. Yet it really happened, ten years ago.
There is a moment that marks a before and after in every story, and the evening of November 13, 2015 at the Bataclan is destined to remain a watershed in that of popular music: during an Eagles of Death Metal concert a commando of terrorists broke into one of the most popular concert halls in Paris, killing ninety spectators and injuring another hundred.
The world of music, which until then had only been read about in the newspapers about the sleeper cells connected to the black caliphate, found itself in the crosshairs. The awareness of having a role – since then, the media began to talk about live events in terms of soft targets – in what is perhaps the most tragic event recorded in history at the beginning of the new century exploded among the public and artists, triggering the most disparate reactions. There were those who tried to maintain a certain lucidity despite everything, those who abandoned themselves to the blindest anger, those who closed themselves in their fear and those who took advantage of it to fuel controversy.
Ten years after the tragic events in Paris, we remember one of the worst wounds suffered by rock – by those who make it, and by those who listen to it – in all the years of its history.
The minute-by-minute news.
From the Rockol archive:
After the horror: how artists on tour in France and Europe reacted in the hours and days immediately following the attack.
Live tributes: what the big names in world music did when they returned to the stage after the tragedy.
Sting sings “Fragile” at the Bataclan. The photos and the setlist, Sting’s story.
The controversies: Jesse Hughes of Eagles of Death Metal, who experienced the Bataclan first-hand, talks about weapons and security in the club that damned evening. And controversy erupts.
