PARIS: Rock star Sting reopened the Bataclan, the Paris concert hall where jihadists massacred 90 people, at a symbolic and emotional show to mark the first anniversary of France's bloodiest terror attack.
In a sensational turn of events, the concert hall's co-director said he had prevented two members of the US group Eagles of Death Metal, who were on stage when the bloodshed started on November 13, 2015, from entering.
"They came, I threw them out - there are things you can't forgive," Bataclan co-director Jules Frutos told AFP, furious at Eagles frontman Jesse Hughes for his claims that some of the venue's Muslim security men were complicit in the attack.
"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," Frutos added.
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.
However the band's manager Marc Pollack denied members of the group had tried to enter the Bataclan.
He told Billboard magazine, "Jesse did not even try to enter the room for the concert of Sting."
In a brief email Pollack told AFP that the information was "false", "no comment".
Sting began what had been billed as "the toughest gig in rock" with a minute's silence for the 130 people who lost their lives in a night of Islamic State gun and bomb attacks across the French capital.
The British singer - who spoke French throughout the gig - told the crowd that "We will not forget them" before launching into a set that walked a perfect line between celebration and reflection.
Many in the crowd wept during the first song, 'Fragile' as Sting sang "Nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could".
The singer then got the place on its feet clapping and stamping with 'Message In a Bottle'.
"I'll send an SOS to the world," he sang. "Only hope can keep us alive."
More than 250 survivors and victims' families attended the concert, the dominant event in a weekend of otherwise low-key commemorations.
Today, the actual anniversary of the attacks, President Francois Hollande and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo will unveil plaques outside the Bataclan as well as the other locations that were targeted -- the national stadium, restaurants and bars.