Frank Zappa’s 1971 film 200 Motels dealt with the craziness of life on the road in a surreal fashion. But would soon prove to be stranger than semi-autobiographical fiction, as a subsequent European tour with his band The Mothers Of Invention descended into chaos and potentially life-threatening injuries.
Things started to take a downward turn on 4 December that year, when they played a show at the Casino de Montreux in Switzerland. An audience member set off a flare that burned the place to the ground, as the song has it. The incident was immortalised in Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water, but while it may have inspired one of rock’s most iconic riffs, it wasn’t good news for Zappa and the Mothers. The band’s gear was all destroyed save (legend has it) for one solitary cowbell, leading to them cancelling planned shows in France and Belgium.
