Just think: if it hadn’t been for that idiot with the roman candles, that beautiful building would still be there. The modern replacement is a Seventies eyesore. The Casino was rebuilt on the same spot, but sadly they didn’t recreate the Belle Époque splendour of the original structure. The Jazz Festival is his enduring testament (he also gets a shout-out as “Funky Claude” in “Smoke on the Water”). Nobs died in 2013, after a skiing accident, aged 76. By modern standards, this was virtually a live album. It was such a palaver getting out of the hotel and into the mobile studio that they often didn’t bother listening to the playback. The sound he created was clean and sparse, never overly ornate or fussy. Sound engineer Martin Birch did a brilliant job. This no-nonsense attitude was reflected in the production. Today, it’s not only the most celebrated song on the album, but the most celebrated song they’ve ever played. And so belatedly, “Smoke on the Water” ended up on the LP, almost by accident. Then they remembered the demo they’d recorded at The Pavillon, just before the Swiss police threw them out. They’d recorded six classic tracks, including “Lazy”, “Highway Star”, “Pictures of Home” and “Space Truckin’”, but it still came up a bit short for a full LP. By common consent it was (and still is) Deep Purple’s finest album. In stark contrast to Fireball, which was recorded off and on over nine months, Machine Head was finished within a few weeks. They set up their equipment in a vacant corridor, and “with a few red lights and a few old beds they made a place to sweat”. As the song says, “it was empty, cold and bare”. Orchestral arrangements aren't necessarily supposed to rock, but backed by strings, Deep Purple virtually demolished the stage with their performance.Clearly, The Pavillon wouldn’t do so Nobs got them into the Grand Hotel, a huge fin de siècle pile that was closed for the winter – a bit like a Swiss version of The Shining. Nearly 40 years on, Deep Purple gave the familiar classic a turbo-charged update, performing it during their orchestral tour last year, which was captured on a recent live DVD release recorded at, whaddya know, Montreux. Grace under pressure and good use of clock management helped Purple to deliver both a classic album and what would become one of classic rock’s most memorable and enduring songs. The harried set of events - both the fire and Gillan’s illness - left the band strapped for time, and Glover says as a result, a good amount of ‘Machine Head’ was written “on the spot." 'Smoke On The Water’ is evidence that perhaps the spontaneity was a very good thing.įrom Blackmore’s cataclysmic riffing to Gillan’s stormy vocals, seemingly pushing back against an unseen wind, the sounds of ‘Smoke’ put you in the flame-licking midst of a developing tragedy that would leave its imprint on all who were in the vicinity.
The band would relocate to a hotel to complete the album, which Glover says was recorded under “dire circumstances.” Hence the title, ‘Smoke On The Water’ and also unfortunately, the need for a new recording location.
And the smoke was just like a stage show and it was hanging on the water.” “The wind was coming down off the mountains and blowing the flames and the smoke over the lake. It was a scary vision, as Gillen remembers, telling syndicated radio host Redbeard that “it was an inferno.” Bassist Roger Glover came up with the title ‘Smoke On The Water,’ which provided the linchpin for Gillen to write the lyrics which would provide a scene by scene account of the Zappa-related debacle. Watching the fiery events inspired the immortal opening riff from guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, which would be painstakingly imitated by budding guitar players of many future generations. Their progress was further delayed when a concert-goer shot off a flare at a Frank Zappa show at the Casino that set the roof on fire and destroyed the building. Recording in a mobile studio owned by the Rolling Stones within the Montreux Casino complex, the band was in the midst of laying down basic tracks when lead singer Ian Gillan was sidelined with hepatitis. Purple had come to town in 1971 to record the album which would become ‘Machine Head.' When Deep Purple first visited however, the festival was in its early stages, lasting only a couple of days. For Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke On The Water,’ all you have to do is journey to the little town on the water called Montreux which for decades, has played host to the annual Montreux Jazz Festival.