Members of Eagles of Death Metal, the US group who were playing when jihadists attacked Paris' Bataclan concert hall last year, were turned away from the venue's reopening show Saturday over controversial remarks by their lead singer.
"They came, I threw them out - there are things you can't forgive," said Bataclan co-director Jules Frutos, as Sting was wrapping up an emotional reopening show to mark a year since 90 people were massacred there during a gig by the Californian band
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.
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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Invitations for EODM to play a number of French summer music festivals were also swiftly withdrawn.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 play the Bataclan again one day.
However, 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.
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