It's like having a button that makes the audience go nuts': Deep Purple on Smoke on the Water
Briefly

In 1971, a band rented the Rolling Stones' mobile studio to record at the Montreux casino. The night before recording began, a flare gun fired during a Frank Zappa concert led to an explosion that engulfed the casino in flames. While watching the fire from a nearby hotel, the phrase 'smoke on the water' came to mind. With guitarist Ritchie Blackmore's riff, the band quickly wrote the song 'Smoke on the Water', capturing the emotional event. Montreux remains significant to the band, marked by unique memories from that time.
We wanted a more exciting sound than we had been getting in conventional recording studios, so hired the Rolling Stones' mobile studio for three weeks to record in the Montreux casino.
Some stupid with a flare gun fired into the ceiling. Sparks came down and everyone had to get out.
As the song puts it, smoke on the water, I suggested Smoke on the Water as the title of a song about what had happened to us.
It came out as if we were writing in a journal, beginning: We all came out to Montreux, on the Lake Geneva shoreline.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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