Eagles of Death Metal documentary pulled from festival

A documentary about the Eagles of Death Metal has been pulled from the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam.

Screenings have been cancelled of The Redemption Of The Devil, which follows band frontman Jesse Hughes in the build up to the release of their new album.

Gunmen killed 89 people at the band’s gig at the Bataclan concert hall in last Friday’s Paris attacks.

The band escaped, but members of their crew and record company were killed.

The documentary, made by director Alex Hoffman, follows the band’s charismatic, hard-living frontman as he hits 40, becomes ordained as a Catholic minister and ponders a future in politics.

The BBC understands it was pulled because the timing felt inappropriate.

Yesterday the band issued their first statement about the attack and said they were “bonded in grief with the victims, the fans… and all those affected by terrorism”.

They said they were “horrified and still trying to come to terms with what happened in France” and all shows were on hold until further notice.

Meanwhile, new figures show ticket sales for concerts in Paris have fallen by around 80% since the series of attacks in the city.

Following the incident at the Bataclan, bands including U2 and Foo Fighters cancelled gigs.

A spokesman for Prodiss, the music industry producers group, said: “The attacks sent a shock wave that has hit our audiences hard.”

The group is carrying out a full audit to see how many concerts have been cancelled, but fear the cost of extra security measures might lead to more shows being pulled.

“Producers are extremely worried about the future. They work on quite a narrow (profit) margin,” the spokesman said, adding the Christmas period was crucial for the industry.

French Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin has promised a emergency fund of four million euros (£2.8m) to help get live entertainment up and running again and help with the cost of new security measures.

But Prodniss said double that was needed.

“We have to rebuild the public’s confidence, make them feel happy and relaxed about going out to concerts again,” it said.

BBC