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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Interviews by Dave Simpson

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

‘A lovely man was running around pulling kids out’ … from left, Roger Glover, Ian Gillan, Ian Paice, Jon Lord (standing at back) and Ritchie Blackmore.
‘A lovely man was running around pulling kids out’ … from left, Roger Glover, Ian Gillan, Ian Paice, Jon Lord (standing at back) and Ritchie Blackmore. Photograph: Jorgen Angel/Redferns

Roger Glover, bass, songwriter

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. It was 1971 and the night before we were due to begin, we went to see Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention play in the casino as part of the Montreux jazz festival, but – as the song puts it – “some stupid with a flare gun” fired into the ceiling.

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