travelled to Switzerland to record Machine Head

In early December 1971, the band travelled to Switzerland to record Machine Head . The album was due to be recorded at the Montreux Casino using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio , but a fire during a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention concert, caused by a man firing a flare gun into the ceiling, burned down the Casino.The shot caused the venue’s heating system to explode. There was no loss of life due to the fire. This was mainly due to it being a less than full afternoon show and that the drummer’s kit malfunctioned, causing many audience members to leave. This incident famously inspired the song ” Smoke on the Water “. The album was later recorded in a corridor at the nearby empty Grand Hôtel de Territet , with the exception of the music track to “Smoke on the Water”. That was recorded at a vacant theatre called The Pavillon before the band was asked to leave. On recording “Smoke on the Water”, Blackmore stated to BBC Radio 2 : “We did the whole thing in about four takes because we had to. The police were banging on the door. We knew it was the police, but we had such a good sound in this hall. We were waking up all the neighbours for about five miles in Montreux, because it was echo-ing through the mountains. I was just getting the last part of the riff down, we’d just finished it, when the police burst in and said ‘you’ve got to stop’. We had the track down.”