Machine Head is the sixth studio album by English rock band Deep Purple. It was recorded in December 1971 in Montreux, Switzerland, and released on 30 March 1972, by Purple Records. It is the band's third studio album to feature the Mark II line-up of Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, and Ian Paice. Previous recording sessions had been slotted into the group's gigging schedule. This time, Deep Purple wanted to dedicate time to record an album away from the typical studio environment, hoping it would result in a sound closer to their live shows. They used the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio for recording and block-booked the Montreux Casino as a venue, but during a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention concert immediately before the sessions, the casino burned to the ground after an audience member fired a flare gun into the ceiling. After a week of searching for an alternative venue, including a session at a nearby theatre that was abandoned due to noise complaints, the band managed to book the Grand Hotel, closed for the winter, and converted it into a live room suitable for recording. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine...) under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)