Scene + Heard: Entertainment news round up

MUSIC NEWS: With the ramifications of the Paris attacks still unfolding three weeks on, Eagles of Death Metal, the band who were playing the Bataclan where 89 music fans were killed, have given their first interview since those horrific events.

Fri, 27 Nov, 2015 - 00:00

Eoghan O’Sullivan

In a highly charged 26-minute video for Vice EODM co-founder Jesse Hughes and some members of the band and crew — later joined by co-founder Josh Homme — talk about what happened that night, and remember their merch’ guy that night, Nick Alexander, who Homme details as “never calling for help because he didn’t want others to get hurt”.

Hughes is teary, traumatised, but defiant: “I want to be the first band to play in the Bataclan when it opens back up. Because I was there when it went silent for a minute. Our friends went there to see rock and roll and died. I want to go back there and live.” The interview is an essential, harrowing watch.

Another band planning a return to Paris are U2, fresh off a couple of hometown gigs at the 3Arena. They cancelled two dates in the 30,000-capacity Accorhotels Arena in Bercy in the wake of the terror attacks, but Bono and friends will be back at that venue on December 6 and 7, with the latter date being recorded for a HBO live special.

Meanwhile, in one of the odder feuds of the year, Damon Albarn claims he was misquoted about working with Adele, who has just released a new album — you might have heard about it or been among the circa 2.9m people sending 25 top of the charts pretty much everywhere.

The Blur frontman worked on some sessions with Adele but had said the forthcoming album would be “very middle of the road”. Adele retorted, claiming it was a case of “don’t meet your idols”. And now, in this middle-class, middle-of-the-road tit for tat, Albarn claimed in an interview with Time Out: “It’s not even true: it’s amazing how people will run with stuff that has no credence whatsoever and turn it into something and then watch the reaction.” Don’t mess with Adele, Damon, she kind of IS the music biz right now...

GIG WISE:

With rumours rampant of a surprise Rihanna album coming any day now, RiRi has announced a date at the Aviva Stadium, bringing along prospective superstar The Weeknd on Tuesday, June 21 (sandwiched between Body & Soul and Glastonbury weekends, for the festival fans keeping count). Tickets on sale next Thursday, from €69.50.

In Cork this weekend, Triskel Arts Centre is home to a celebration of the contemporary music label ECM, with intriguing shows lined up through Sunday, such as Amores Pasados tonight (Anna Maria Friman, John Potter. and Ariel Abramovich attempt to bridge the gap between art song and pop song); and Quercus on Sunday, featuring the renowned June Tabor.

COMEDY CAPERS:

Jimmy Carr has a burgeoning Irish tour planned over the next few weeks, and now it’s fit to bursting with the addition of some late-night shows, (well, doors open 9.45pm) at Cork Opera House on December 4 and 5, and the Olympia on December 11 and 12.

FILM TIPS:

Who is it for you this weekend, James Donovan or Whitey Bulger? Johnny Depp or Tom Hanks?

Depp plays the gangster Bulger in Black Mass while Hanks teams up again with Spielberg (for, surprisingly, only the fourth time) on the Oscar-baiting Bridge of Spies, set in the Cold War.