Smoke on water II

Deep Purple, whose 1970s hit "Smoke on the Water" describes a concert fire raging in Montreux, is returning to the Swiss lakeside resort to close the 40th annual jazz festival, organisers announced on Thursday.

Some 100 groups are performing at the June 30-July 15 event, whose line-up includes Santana, Sting, Black Eyed Peas, Diana Krall and BB King on his last European tour.

The two-week festival, which draws about 250,000 people each summer to the shores of Lake Geneva, is celebrating its 40th anniversary and the 70th birthday of its founder Claude Nobs.

Deep Purple wrote the song, whose opening four-note riff became one of the most famous in hard rock history after watching a December 1971 fire at the Montreux Casino where they were to record their album "Machine Head" the next day.

The fire, which broke out during a concert by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention after a fan shot a flare gun to the ceiling, destroyed the complex as members of Deep Purple watched from their hotel. Nobs helped some in the audience to escape.

The song's world famous refrain is: "Smoke on the Water -- A Fire in the Sky".

The Deep Purple concert, on the night of July 15, is billed as "We all came down to Montreux", the song's opening line.