It has been suggested that he shaved off his beard and mustache. Although his details had been widely circulated in police bulletins, no trace of Spicka has been found in Switzerland. The cause of the accident is therefore clearly established. The matter is that Spicka fired a flare gun in the hall, first some and then a small flare that lodged into the ceiling which set it on fire. He was placed under arrest by the in Vevey. It was one Spicka Zdenek, born 4 November 1949, Czech refugee, previously of Epalinages, currently on the run (see photo). The investigation performed by the police can identify the perpetrator of the act that caused this catastrophe. On the other hand, the damage in numbers was between 12 and 15 million francs. By exceptional luck, this accident did not claim a victim. As previously already stated in the press, a fire completely ravaged the Montreux Casino on Saturday, 4 December, 1971, at the end of the afternoon where a pop concert had attracted some 2000 listeners.
“Here is the release concerning the Montreux Casino fire. It was subsequently translated into English by another Deep Purple fan as follows: The above cutting was tracked down and posted to a Spanish Deep Purple blog back in 2009. Spicka fled the scene immediately afterwards and although a police ‘Wanted’ operation was mounted he was never located. According to a local newspaper article published later that month Spicka is alleged to have fired some capsules and then a small flare into the ceiling of the venue that started the fire and cause the entire place to have burnt down. Step forward one Zdenek Spicka, a Czechoslovakian national living in Switzerland at the time. As the song goes:īut who was the “Stupid with a flare gun” who burned the place to the ground? Unfortunately, as we all know, it didn’t quite work out that way. Used for live concerts throughout the year, Frank Zappa’s performance on 4th December was to be the last of the season, after which Deep Purple would be able to have the run of the place to themselves and the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio would be parked up outside to capture everything on tape. In December 1971 the band were planning to record their forthcoming album Machine Head at the Montreux Casino in Switzerland. As most rock fans know, Deep Purple’s most famous song ‘Smoke On The Water’ was based on an actual real life event.
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