Flair casino

Casino located in Montreux, Switzerland

Montreux Casino(Casino Barrière de Montreux) is a casino located in Montreux, Switzerland on the shoreline of Lake Geneva. It has served as the venue for the Montreux Jazz Festival and was rebuilt following a fire memorialized in the Deep Purple song "Smoke on the Water". It is a property of Groupe Lucien Barrière.

History[edit]

Montreux Casino was built in and was modified in Throughout the 20th century, the site hosted many great symphony orchestras and well-known conductors. By the late s, jazz, blues and rock artists began to perform there.

In , the casino became the venue for the Montreux Jazz Festival, which was started by music promoterClaude Nobs. The three-day festival was held there annually and featured performers such as Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette, Bill Evans, Nina Simone, Jan Garbarek, Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald. Originally featuring almost exclusively jazz artists, in the s the festival began to include blues, soul, and rock artists such as Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple.

fire[edit]

On December 4, , Montreux Casino was destroyed by a fire that began during a concert by the Mothers of Invention after a fan had shot a flare gun.^[1][2] A recording of the outbreak and fire announcement can be found on a Frank Zappa bootleg album titled Swiss Cheese/Fire!^[3]

English rock group Deep Purple, who had planned to record Machine Head at the venue, were forced to seek an alternate recording location. Their song "Smoke on the Water" was written about the incident:

We all came out to Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline / To make records with a mobile - We didn't have much time / Frank Zappa & the Mothers were at the best place around / But some stupid with a flare gun burned the place to the ground / Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky

The casino was rebuilt, and until the venue reopened in , the Montreux Jazz Festival was held in other auditoriums in Montreux. The festival continued to be hosted there until , when it moved to the larger Montreux Convention Centre located approximately one kilometre from the casino. From through , the festival occupied both the convention centre and the casino. Beginning with the 41st festival in , nightly performances of headliners were again moved mainly to the convention centre, although the casino still occasionally hosts shows.

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External links[edit]

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