Remembering Those Lost In Paris

Nick Alexander, 36, of Colchester, England, a longtime merchandise manager who was working on the Eagles Of Death Metal European tour.

“Nick was not just our brother, son and uncle, he was everyone’s best friend – generous, funny and fiercely loyal,” his family said in a statement. “Nick died doing the job he loved and we take great comfort in knowing how much he was cherished by his friends around the world.”

Alexander worked for many bands over two decades in the industry including The Black Keys, Panic! At The Disco, Alice In Chains, Yusuf/Cat Stevens, and Fall Out Boy.

Thomas Ayad, 32, of Amiens, France, was a marketing executive for Mercury Music Group. Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge confirmed Ayad’s death in a memo to employees the day after the massacre, calling it an “unspeakably appalling tragedy.” 

Ayad worked for UMG for nearly eight years, according to Rolling Stone, most recently as International Project Manager. Among the artists paying tribute to Ayad in the days after the attack were Metallica, Rammstein, Keith Richards, and Justin Bieber.

Eagles Of Death Metal, whom Ayad had championed to the label, cited Ayad as one of their “record company comrades” in the band’s first statement after the attack.

Guillame Decherf, 43, was a music journalist for the French culture magazine Les Inrockuptibles.

He was at the Eagles Of Death Metal concert covering the release of the band’s latest album, Zipper Down. Fellow music journalist Thomas Mafrouche told the Associated Press Decherf, who was to have met Mafrouche the day after the show, was the father of two daughters.

“I’m thinking about their pain, about their father, whom they will miss terribly,” he wrote. Decherf was also a contributor to heavy metal website Hard Force.

Nathalie Jardin, 31, had been the lighting director at Le Bataclan since November 2011 and was lighting the Eagles Of Death Metal show Nov. 13.

Jardin also worked with a French punk band called Les Fatals Picards, which represented France in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. “We have lost a buddy, a friend, a little sister, an adorable person whose professional conscience, integrity, joie de vivre, sweetness, strong character, and sensibility we will greatly miss,” the band wrote for French publication L’Observateur de Beauvais.

Two former employees of Mercury Records France were also killed. Universal Music France President Pascal Negre tweeted, “Universal Music family is in mourning: Thomas, Marie, Manu. Our thoughts go out to their families and their friends. RIP.”

Marie and Manu have been identified as Marie Mosser and Manu Perez. Mosser worked in communications and digital management. Perez was a digital marketing executive.