Paris will stay strong despite terror attacks, Bono says

Bono has said the character of Paris will not change despite the terror attacks last month (AP)

 Bono says Paris will remain strong despite last month's terror attacks and he hopes that U2's concert in the French city this week will move the audience.

The Irish band were set to perform in Paris on November 14 and were rehearsing when 130 people were killed in suicide bombings and shootings the day before in what has become the worst attack on French soil in more than a half-century.

With the Accor Hotels Arena gigs rescheduled for December 6 and 7, Bono said of the terrorists: "They took a lot of lives we're not going to get back, but they're not going to change the character of the city of Paris."

When asked what concertgoers can expect when U2 perform, he added: "Well, knowing our French audience and having a sense of them by now, I would say joy as an act of defiance.

"That's what U2 does, that's what French people want from us and that's it."

Of the audience, he said: "These are our people and they're very familiar faces, the people in the audience, they're our people.

"They're like my daughter, my son, they're like (U2 members) Edge, they're like Larry (Mullen, Jr.) ... so we took it very badly. But we're going back, you bet. Nothing will stop us from going back."

Bono also praised US rock band Eagles of Death Metal, who were performing at the concert theatre Bataclan where some people were taken hostage and killed.

He said: "We're very, very moved by the fact that our fellow troubadours, the Eagles of Death Metal, had such a hard time.

"They're an extraordinary talented band, they've been through the most ugly nightmare and they have been very graceful about it."

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/