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Eagles of Death Metal fans rally to band's support

By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Fans of the California-based rock band Eagles of Death Metal, whose Paris show was turned into a massacre by gunmen who stormed the concert, have mounted a social media campaign to boost downloads of the band's newly recorded track "Save a Prayer." A Facebook page titled "Eagles of Death Metal for No. 1" was launched over the weekend, according to the site, by a handful of British-based "regular gig-goers" with no ties to the band's organisation, its management, marketing or music label. A companion Twitter page was also established. They urged fans to show solidarity by purchasing "Save a Prayer," a cover version of a 1982 Duran Duran single, from music sites like Amazon.com and iTunes and by playing the track on the Spotify music streaming website. Organizers said they were aiming to drive the song to the top of the British pop singles charts this week, and that the track already had hit No. 1 on Amazon and iTunes rock charts within 24 hours. "Save a Prayer" is the 10th track among 11 songs recorded by the band on its fourth album, "Zipper Down," which was released in October to mostly positive reviews. "Zipper Down" ranked 6 on Amazon's U.S. roster of best-selling rock albums and at No. 3 on iTunes' equivalent chart on Monday - an impressive showing for a release that according to Nielsen SoundScan had sold a meagre 12,000 album downloads and CDs in the United States before Friday's tragedy. The band, which also goes by the acronym EODM, was on stage Friday night at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris when gunmen opened fire with automatic rifles, killing scores of people in the largest loss of life in the attacks across Paris. A brief video clip taken inside the hall as the assault began was posted to Instagram and has since been shown on television. In it, three EODM musicians can be seen on stage in the middle of an instrumental performance as gunfire erupts, prompting the drummer to duck for cover while one guitarist flees the stage and another stands frozen. All the musicians escaped unharmed, according to relatives reached by Reuters over the weekend. But at least one member of the band's entourage, merchandising manager Nick Alexander, 36, was killed, his family said in a statement on Saturday. (Reporting by Steve Gorman; additional reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy in Los Angeles; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Ken Wills)