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'We will never give up': Eagles of Death Metal join U2 on stage in Paris

The group took to the stage in Paris close to a month after the Bataclan attack.

ronan le doeuff / YouTube

EAGLES OF DEATH Metal, the American rock band who survived a jihadist attack on their concert in Paris last month, made an emotional return to the stage in the French capital last night alongside U2.

“They were robbed of their stage three weeks ago and we would like to offer them ours tonight,” U2 frontman Bono said, embracing the band’s white-suited lead singer Jesse Hughes before they both broke into a rousing rendition of Patti Smith’s People Have The Power.

In a highly-charged concert at the AccorHotels Arena, filled with references to the 130 victims of the November 13 Paris attacks, Bono said:

We must also think of the terrorists’ families… I know it is hard right now.

The singer said they had also been robbed of their loved ones, by “an ideology that is a perversion of the beautiful religion of Islam”.

Bono’s comments came after the searing high-point of the show when a giant screen lit up in the red, white and blue colours of the French flag showed the names of the Paris victims, as Bono sang Jacques Brel’s haunting Ne me quitte pas (Don’t Leave Me).

PastedImage-46503 Bono and Jesse Hughes Screenshot / HBO Screenshot / HBO / HBO

The packed 16,000-seat venue also fell momentarily silent after a version of the band’s anthem Sunday Bloody Sunday, which turns on the line, “Can’t believe the news today”.

“Do you want to be afraid, to look at your fellow citizens with suspicion, turn away our neighbours,” Bono said in a plea for tolerance later in the show.

“You will not have our hatred,” he went on, taking up a line in a letter Antoine Leiris, who lost his wife at the Bataclan concert hall, wrote to her killers.

Ninety people died at the venue in eastern Paris in the worst of the attacks as the Eagles of Death Metal were just starting their set.

PastedImage-25120 Screenshot Screenshot

Fans had been left guessing over whether the California rockers would perform alongside U2, with expectation mounting after the Irish band hinted last week about “special guests” joining them at their two rescheduled Paris gigs.

“We love you all, we will never give up rocking and rolling,” Hughes, the Eagles’ lead singer, said to a huge cheer from the audience when they appeared at the show’s finale.

U2 had been due to play the arena on November 14 and 15, but the gigs were cancelled after the shootings and suicide bombings.

- © AFP, 2015

‘They’re a death cult, we’re a life cult’: Bono tells CNN the difference between Islamic State and U2 >

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    Mute Eggfuel
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    Mar 20th 2012, 7:09 AM

    What a country Ireland is at last growing into to. Its starting to mature at last… Excellent idea

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    Mute Mark O'Flaherty
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    Mar 20th 2012, 10:40 AM

    Its about time Irish heroes who fought in the great war, world war 2 and other wars for foreign armies, namely the British army are remembered. Credit has to be given to Myles Dungan and Kevin Myers for their continuous writing on this topic over the years and of course Mary McAleese for the fantastic work she did in her time as president.

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    Mute Eggers
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    Mar 20th 2012, 11:03 AM

    There was great economic pressure at the time of this recruitment, jobs were scare and people thought that the war would be short, It was a bit of an adventure for a lot of them. Unfortunately it did not turn out like that and the Irish suffered the greatest proportion of fatalities per capita of any people in the allied forces. They were treated as cannon fodder, there was nothing noble or heroic about being ordered out in your thousands to climb up a sea cliff while thousands of Ottoman soldiers shoot at you or charging across a bare field at German artillery. I certainly feel pity for them and how they were used. Like Ireland at the time, most of the men from the south in uniform were pro independence and freedom. Some were not, several of the RIC men that opened up on Bloody Sunday had done their service at the front in WW1. Countless men in the IRA, like the great Tom Barry had fought for years in WW1. My own Grand Uncle fought in WW1 and brought back weapons and grenades for my Grand Father’s IRA unit.

    There is nothing heroic in dying in mud at the hands of an enemy miles away in your thousands for a side that had no trouble with you going over first but nor do I despise them. Money was tight, jobs scare and the pressure to join up was massive. I’m just sad that they died the way they did, same as if they had fought for the Czar or the Kaiser.

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    Mute S P Mc Grath
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    Mar 20th 2012, 11:54 AM

    cannon fodder is all the Irish were in the trenches!!

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    Mar 20th 2012, 12:31 PM

    Indeed and a poignant point was that Unionist regiments and Nationalist regiments were both seen as Irish by the British colonels and used for first waves attacks.

    A man from Galway or from East Belfast was viewed as just as useful as stopping a German bullet, whatever flag he doodled in letters home.

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    Mute Cez Miname
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    Jan 6th 2014, 12:37 AM

    Bloody nonsense…

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    Jan 6th 2014, 12:34 AM

    “how Irishmen were recruited into British Forces… ” I really get fed up with this lazy post independence language that suggests the irish were dragged into some foreign army. We, like the English, Welsh and Scots simply joined THE Army.

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