The Mighty Stef has been talking to Hot Press about the shock of discovering that so many people had been killed last week in Le Bataclan where he'd played only a couple of weeks previously with The Strypes.
"My favourite gig of the year turned into the most poignantly tragic one," an emotional Stef tells us. "We were in Le Bataclan on October 22 with The Strypes. It was at the very end of the tour and we did a version of Plastic Bertrand’s ‘Ça Plane Pour Moi’. He’s Belgian, I know, but it’s the only French-language song I’d have been comfortable belting out. So I did the vocals, and we even threw in some of the lyrics from the Only Fools And Horses theme!
“The crowd were just so fucking into it; they were almost the opposite of how people describe Parisians, laying their hearts on the line for rock ’n’ roll music, not being stand-offish. Somebody sent me a video of us doing it after the tragedy, it was just so fucking fun and energetic. We were down the back of the hall selling merchandise where that poor English guy, Nick Alexander, was shot. The mental images and nightmares I’ve had since of someone just walking in that door where we were standing and all this shit happening. I was down in Slane doing a small gig with a couple of lads out of the band last Friday, and got a text from the guy promoting it saying, ‘Have you seen the shit that’s going down in Le Bataclan?’ I just fucking started shaking. That gig had been one of the most magical nights of my life but, of course, now it’s just so tragic.”
Stef was talking to Hot Press as part of our Christmas Roundtable, which you’ll be able to read on Thursday. Catch him tonight in the Dublin Olympia with Clutch and in Sandino’s, Derry on Sunday.