A documentary about the recording of “Smoke on the Water” will be screened, and the country’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, will be present at the gala.
To mark the 30th anniversary of the recording, Iommi and Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan, along with Rock Aid Armenia organizer Jon Dee, are traveling to Yerevan, Armenia. The supergroup, which featured Deep Purple‘s Ritchie Blackmore, Pink Floyd‘s David Gilmour, Queen‘s Brian May and Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi, among many others, recorded a cover of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water,” which made it into the U.K. Perhaps the most surprising fundraising effort, though, came from a who’s who of rock and metal legends calling themselves Rock Aid Armenia. sent medical aid and search dogs, and people from all over Europe came to help. The USSR earmarked the equivalent of billions of dollars to help rebuild, the U.S. When an earthquake decimated parts of Armenia and killing between 25,000 to 50,000 people in 1988, the world was in shock.