Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes took to the stage at a concert celebrating the life of Nick Alexander – the Briton killed in the Paris attacks in November last year.
Nick Alexander.Alexander was working as a roadie for the US band when three terrorists stormed the Bataclan theatre on November 13.
He was among 89 people killed in the attack.
Hughes appeared moved as he paid tribute to his friend on stage at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London – just days after the first anniversary of the massacre.
Dressed in white, he told the crowd as he closed his set: “I’m going to do an a capella song, specifically for my dear friend Nick, who I miss every day.
“And I think what’s happening here is one of the most beautiful things you could have asked for.
“The only answer there is for things that are terrible is love and beauty and peace, and right now you are proving that beyond a shadow of doubt.”
The only answer there is for things that are terrible is love and beauty and peace
Hughes’s performance came after it was claimed he was turned away from Sting’s concert at the Bataclan on Saturday by the venue’s management.
The American singer provoked anger in the months following the massacre when he suggested Bataclan security staff were at fault in the attack, but later apologised.
Hughes was joined on the line-up for the gig – dubbed A Peaceful Noise – by rockstars including Maximo Park, Travis frontman Fran Healy, Supergrass’s Gaz Coombes and Chas and Dave.
Zoe Alexander, Alexander’s sister, said the family had marked the first anniversary of the attacks in Paris and had watched Sting perform at the Bataclan as the venue reopened for the first time.
She said: “It was very important for us to stand side-by-side with the other families that had gone through the same experience. There is great strength to be gained there.”
Alexander, 43, said the tribute concert on Tuesday night was “very personal” to her brother – and many of the performers had worked with him on tour and been his friend.
Healy, of Travis, first met Alexander in the catering tent during a gig in Glasgow on the band’s 2009-2010 tour.
Before performing a stripped-back set, including hits Driftwood and Turn, Healy told the crowd: “We hang our troubles in the cloakroom and get lost. We get found, we drop our guards. There are no strangers at a gig. We are all in the band.
“So what happened in Paris last year was all the more awful because of this – on our turf, in our church. So we are here tonight in this special place to honour Nick the only way we know how – through live music.”
The crowd paused for a minute’s “peaceful noise” following a set by singer-songwriter Frank Turner, with the whole audience rising to their feet to applaud Alexander’s life in a moving tribute.