Firefall

This article is about the band. For the video game, see Firefall (video game). For other uses of Firefall, see Firefall (disambiguation).
Firefall

Firefall in 2010
Background information
Origin Boulder, Colorado, U.S.
Genres Country rock, pop rock, soft rock
Years active 1974–present
Labels Atlantic Records
Website Official site
Members Jock Bartley
Mark Andes
Sandy Ficca
David Muse
Gary Jones
Past members Rick Roberts
Larry Burnett
Michael Clarke
Dan Holsten
George Hawkins
Tris Imboden
Kim Stone
Johnne Sambataro
Chuck Kirkpatrick
Scott Kirkpatrick
Greg Overton
Steve Hadjoupolos
Bob Gaffney
Eddie Gleason
Mark Oblinger
Dan Clawson
Bruce Crichton
Steve Manshel
Bil Hopkins
Bray Ghiglia
Jim Waddell
Bob Fisher
Steve Jenks
Jace Hill
Chris Ball
Steven Weinmeister

Firefall is a rock band that formed in Boulder, Colorado in 1974. It was founded by Rick Roberts, who had been in the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Jock Bartley, who had been Tommy Bolin's replacement in Zephyr. The band's biggest hit single, "You Are the Woman", peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard charts in 1976. Other hits included "Just Remember I Love You" (#11 in 1977), "Strange Way" (#11 in 1978), "Cinderella" (#34 in 1977), "Headed for a Fall" (#35 in 1980), and "Staying with It" (#37 in 1981) with female vocalist Lisa Nemzo.

History

Beginnings

In 1973 Rick Roberts and Jock Bartley first crossed paths when Bartley was on tour with Gram Parsons as a member of his backing band The Fallen Angels. Both The Fallen Angels and Roberts were performing in New York City at the same venue on consecutive nights. After the two were reunited back in their native Colorado, Roberts was impressed by Bartley's guitar work and the duo soon began practicing together. Encouraged to form a band, they contacted bassist-singer Mark Andes (a former member of the bands Spirit and Jo Jo Gunne, who had temporarily retired to the mountains outside Boulder, Colorado), and Washington D.C. singer-songwriter-guitarist Larry Burnett, whom Rick had met in his travels earlier that same year, and coaxed them into joining their band, which they christened Firefall in 1974.

Roberts took the name from the Yosemite Firefall (1872 to 1968), a summertime tradition of dumping a cascade of flaming embers off Glacier Point in California's Yosemite National Park. Guitarist/keyboardist Mark Hallman was another musician considered for Firefall but Hallman turned down the offer to stay with his band Navarro (Andes had briefly been a member as well), who went on to back up Carole King. According to a recent interview with www.glorydazemusic.com, Roberts originally had his name before the band's as Rick Roberts & Firefall. But Rick's name was soon dropped when he realized it was not enough of a marketing draw.

For the drum chair the group auditioned several local musicians but eventually decided, after a phone call from him, to add Roberts' former band mate from Flying Burrito Brothers, Michael Clarke, who was most famous for his time spent in the '60s folk-rock band The Byrds. Clarke, who was now living in Washington, having recently returned from residing in Hawaii, agreed to come aboard.

The band tightened up their act performing in clubs in Colorado for over a year, mainly in Boulder and Aspen. In early 1975 the band recorded a demo tape consisting of three songs produced by Chris Hillman. They then began taking it around to major labels, but were unsuccessful, at first.

Breakthrough and success

In 1975 Bartley, Andes and Roberts were brought into Chris Hillman's band. Before a scheduled performance at The Other End in NYC in June 1975, Hillman became ill and was unable to play the show or finish the tour. Burnett and Clarke were then flown in to complete the commitments. Atlantic A&R representatives (who had already heard the band's demo tape) saw the Other End show and quickly signed Firefall to a multi-album contract. During the summer, when the contract was signed, Roberts was out playing as a member of Stephen Stills' band, so work on their first album was delayed until late 1975.

Just before the debut album's recording sessions at Criteria Studios in Miami, they brought in Roberts' high school friend from Bradenton, Florida, David Muse. Muse was a multi-instrumentalist who played the saxophone, flute, harmonica and keyboards. Jim Mason, who had worked with Poco in the past, was producer.

The album was recorded in one month and the result, the self-titled Firefall, released in May 1976, became Atlantic Records quickest album to reach gold status. The group's first single, "Livin' Ain't Livin'," stopped just short of the Top 40. In the following months, the band toured with artists such as Leon and Mary Russell, the Doobie Brothers, Tom Waits, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Roy Buchanan, Electric Light Orchestra and The Band and were put on the bottom of a bill that featured Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker and Asleep at the Wheel.

The group in 1977.

The band's next single, "You Are the Woman", made the Top 10 and the band began touring with Fleetwood Mac, who were at the beginning of their commercial peak. Their next single, "Cinderella", though it reached the Top 40 and was played extensively on FM radio, did not fare as well on AM radio because of its controversial lyrics which caused feminist groups to pressure the stations to avoid playing it. However, this did not have a lasting effect on the band's sales.

The group then headed back to Criteria Studios to record their second album, which was to be titled Tropical Nights. They were joined on these sessions by Cuban percussionist Joe Lala (ex-Manassas, who'd also played on their debut) and the Memphis Horns. But after hearing the final mix, Atlantic Records decided that the album needed to be reworked. With Jim Mason again at the helm, Firefall then redid several songs in L.A. and added some new ones. The album was renamed Luna Sea (pun: "lunacy") and released in July 1977. The revamped LP peaked at No. 27 on the charts and went gold less than two months after release. The single from the album, "Just Remember I Love You", featuring backing vocals by future Eagle Timothy B. Schmit, hit No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.

It was around this period that tensions were beginning to rise within the group, stemming from non-stop touring and management problems as well as alcohol and drug abuse. In recent interviews, both Rick and Larry have indicated that the group at this time was divided between the heavy substance users (Rick, Larry and Michael Clarke) and the other three (Bartley, Andes and Muse), who were a bit more in control of themselves. At this time the group was also incredibly popular and playing to sold-out crowds with Fleetwood Mac as part of their Rumours tour. But this only delayed their disintegration for a short time.

In 1978 the band brought in producer Tom Dowd, who had worked with the Allman Brothers Band and Eric Clapton, among many others, to produce their third album, Elan, recording some at Criteria and some at L.A.'s Record Plant. The band and Dowd got along well personally but they had conflicting musical visions. The differences were apparently noticeable enough that the band's new management, with help from their new friend Mick Fleetwood, pressured the record label into letting them rework the album. This put the group in debt with the label, and within the year they parted ways with their new management. The production team of Ron and Howard Albert were brought in to finish the record. Elan, released in October 1978, was a massive success, and it became their first album to reach platinum status. The hit single "Strange Way" continued the band's commercial hot streak.

Decline

After two years of non-stop recording and touring, the band was burned out and their financial situation was unstable.

During a tour of Japan in August 1979, Michael Clarke, due to his excessive drinking, missed gigs or showed up in no condition to play. The band resorted to hiring a German drummer, Dan Holsten, whose playing technique was similar to Clarke's, to sit in. Holsten, who even looked a lot like Clarke, had played in several other bands in the Colorado area and caught the eye of Jock and Larry one night at a Colorado Springs bar. He became known as a 'reliable' back-up drummer for tours and some studio work.

Despite this, Atlantic Records still expected a new album. The band recorded the album sporadically over a year. The Alberts were again brought in to produce the album. But the band once again required a second effort, which was produced by Kyle Lehning. The result, titled Undertow, was released in March 1980. This would be the last album with the original lineup. Upon completion of the album, Clarke and Mark Andes both left the band. Clarke later died of alcoholism at his Treasure Island home in Florida in December 1993.

Andes and Clarke were replaced by Kenny Loggins' former rhythm section, consisting of bassist George Hawkins and drummer Tris Imboden. With the two new players, the band recorded Clouds Across the Sun, which was released in December 1980 and spawned the early 1981 hit "Staying With It", which was done as a duet with singer Lisa Nemzo. Hawkins resigned from the group in late 1980 to join up with Mick Fleetwood's Zoo, a side project the Fleetwood Mac drummer was recording in Africa. After Andes returned to guest for the group's February 1981 appearance on American Bandstand, Kim Stone came in to take over bass. Everything seemed to be on track until Larry Burnett suddenly disappeared from the group, after playing a show at Miami Baseball Stadium with Heart, Blue Oyster Cult, Motorhead and Freewheel on April 19, 1981, to return to his hometown of Washington D.C. to enter a rehab (Burnett eventually kicked a serious drug habit and after working in radio in the late 80s/early 90s, began pursuing a solo career in 2004). The group continued on to play their next show in Las Vegas without him. But after playing a concert with the band in Lahaina, Hawaii with Pure Prairie League in August of that same year, Rick Roberts announced that he also was leaving for a solo career. With the band lacking personnel and increasing in financial debt, Atlantic dropped Firefall from their roster in 1981 and released Best of Firefall at the close of that year.

Resumption and later work

Unhappy with the way things had turned out, Jock Bartley decided to put together a new lineup in early 1982. At Ron Albert's suggestion, Bartley got together with two Miami-based musicians, Johnne Sambataro (during the 70s and 80s, he adopted the conventional spelling of John for his first name) and Chuck Kirkpatrick. Sambataro was a singer/guitarist/keyboardist/bassist/songwriter who had sung on record with Stephen Stills, Eric Clapton, Dave Mason, McGuinn, Clark & Hillman, the members of the Bee Gees and many others. Johnne and Jock had actually met back in 1978 when they both played on the Criteria sessions for Andy Gibb's platinum album Shadow Dancing. Kirkpatrick was a singer–guitarist–keyboardist who had sung with Johnne on a number of the aforementioned sessions and had worked as an engineer at Criteria on such albums as Derek & The Dominos' Layla. Albert then brought in Alan Jacobi, a Miami entertainment lawyer who had a relationship with Atlantic, and Jacobi convinced the label to help resign the band. So in the spring of 1982, Criteria sessions for the Break of Dawn LP began with Ron and brother Howard producing once again. Backing Bartley, Sambataro and Kirkpatrick were a number of Miami session players, with Stephen Stills and Rick Roberts making guest appearances. The album appeared in September 1982 and Bartley, Johnne and Chuck began auditioning additional players for a follow-up tour. Chuck's brother Scott (a top-notch session drummer who, like Johnne, had also played on record and toured with McGuinn, Clark & Hillman) and Colorado bassist Greg Overton were chosen and, at the last minute, David Muse decided to rejoin the band.

In the winter of 1983, Firefall set out across the U.S. to promote Break of Dawn. But the single from it, "Always", failed to reach the Top 40 and quickly fell off the charts.

Mirror of the World followed in November 1983, the title track a comment on the effects of TV violence on children. The album had a much harder edge than its predecessors, with more of an emphasis on an 80's style synth/drum programmed production, which many of the group's fans thought reflected too great a departure from the classic Firefall sound. Though the first single, the rocking "Runaway Love", written by Bartley, Sambataro and Paul Crosta, briefly appeared in a video on MTV and received limited radio airplay, this album too failed to attract sales and quickly disappeared.

The group, once again dropped by Atlantic, nevertheless continued to tour, headlining in smaller clubs and opening in larger venues for groups like the Beach Boys, Little River Band and Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band.

In 1983 Overton quit (he would return briefly to play a few shows with the group in Medford, Oregon in July 1986 as a fill-in) and Muse decided to retire from touring again. Steve Hadjoupolos (sax, flute, keyboards, and backing vocals) and Bob Gaffney (bass, vocals) were brought in and the group soldiered on. Sandy Ficca was brought in to take over from Scott Kirkpatrick on drums in October 1984 (Scott then returned to play some final shows with the band in June 1985 before moving on permanently) and is still with them to date.

On the evening of August 4, 1986, Chuck Kirkpatrick was leaving from a local club gig in the area of Florida where he resided. After breaking down on the road home, he was shot and wounded in the arm in a drive-by shooting; the shooter then fled the scene. The wound was serious enough to almost require amputation of Kirkpatrick's left arm, but doctors were able to save it and Chuck was able to play again after a very difficult rehab period. Many Miami musicians, including Jon Secada and members of the Miami Sound Machine, came to Chuck's aid, playing a series of shows to help defray the cost of Chuck's medical care and rehab. Firefall brought in Colorado musician Mark Oblinger to sit in for Chuck until he was able to return to the band in November 1986. But Kirkpatrick's tenure in the band was coming to an end. In late 1987, Gaffney left and Eddie Gleason came on in the interim. Then Chuck left at the tail end of 1987 after differences with Jock Bartley. Oblinger (who'd subbed for both Chuck and Gaffney in 1986) returned as Kirkpatrick's permanent replacement in December 1987 and Bil Hopkins was the new bassist. Dan Clawson (ex-Pure Prairie League) came in as well to take the place of Hadjoupolos in early 1988.

In 1989, after seven years in Firefall, Sambataro decided it was also time to say goodbye. This paved the way for the return of Rick Roberts and in September 1992, Rhino Records responded to the demand to put out Firefall music on CD by releasing Firefall: The Greatest Hits, which featured all of the singles and AOR favorites and one new song, "Run Run Away", about adult victims of earlier child abuse.

In the early/mid 1990s, the personnel shuffles continued. Roberts, who was suffering from health troubles, left again in the spring of 1992 to be replaced by Bruce Crichton, who turned it over to Steve Manshel in June 1993. Mark Oblinger departed as well and Steven Weinmeister came on board in May 1993. And after Dan Clawson left that same year, there were several people to occupy the woodwind–keyboards chair, including Bray Ghiglia (1993–1994), the returning David Muse (1994–1995; 2000–2003; 2011-present), Jim Waddell (1993; 1995–96; 1998–2000; 2003), Bob Fisher (1996–1998; 2007) and Chris Ball (2003–2011).

While touring in 1993, Firefall encountered the Flood of 1993. One of their gigs was canceled and a few had to be moved to higher ground. In response Jock wrote "When The River Rises", a song with an upbeat message of finding strength in adversity. The band recorded the song in Colorado Springs at Startsong Recording Studio, with engineer–programmer Tom Gregor co-producing with Bartley. "When The River Rises" was then brought back to St. Louis and played on the radio for the first time. At that point, the flood waters had still not crested. Vowing to donate a large portion of the publishing to flood relief, the song was sent to other radio stations in the flooded areas. It received heavy regional airplay and was also used by CNN and other TV stations behind coverage of the disaster.

With the band's profile raised, the search for a new record deal began. Some smaller companies showed interest. They decided to go with an independent Colorado based label, Redstone Records, who'd had some successes in the smooth jazz genre. Messenger was recorded in Denver and Boulder and was released in September 1994. Bartley had been stockpiling songs for ten years for just this opportunity. Along with the hard-edged "When The River Rises" and "Secret", his songs "Love Find A Way", "Very First Moment" (co-written with Rick Roberts) and "Who Ran Away" gave the album a familiar but updated Firefall sound. Bil Hopkins' song "Say It's Over" (written with Mark Oblinger) and Steve Manshel's "Innocent Victim" also appeared on the CD. Mark Andes and Richie Furay made guest appearances on the album and Jim Mason returned to the producer's chair. Messenger was much more diverse than anything the band had released to date with the usual love songs and ballads, but there were also songs about child abuse, environmental catastrophe and even sexual abuse/rape in the chilling "No Means No". The first single, "Love Find A Way", received some minor play on some stations, but Redstone didn't have the distribution clout to get the CD into all stores, so overall sales were disappointing. Some fans hailed it as "their best record since the early days of Firefall" and this gave the group a new touring impetus.

Manshel, who'd begun to take time off from the group to work on a solo album, left altogether in September 1999 to pursue his own career and the band reverted to a five-piece. Other than short-term fill-ins (Steve Jenks subbed for Hopkins in the spring and summer of 1998 and Gary Jones sat in for Weinmeister for a Firefall gig on November 12, 1999 opening for Journey at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco and one for Hopkins in June 2002), Bartley, Weinmeister, Hopkins and Sandy Ficca continued on as Firefall from late 1999 until Hopkins left in 2014.

From 2005 on, Firefall would sometimes play a handful of shows annually as "Acoustic Firefall" in various combinations, with the most common being the trio of Jock, Steve and Bil.

In September 2007, Firefall released a new CD, Colorado to Liverpool – A Tribute To The Beatles (http://www.firefall.com/beatles_tribute_cd.asp).

And on April 9, 2008, at Boulder Theater in Boulder, Colorado, there was a Firefall reunion concert that featured the current lineup joined by Mark Andes, David Muse, Larry Burnett and original Firefall studio percussionist Joe Lala. Rick Roberts attended the show as well but was unable to perform with the others due to health issues. As previously mentioned, Michael Clarke had died in 1993. The reunion appeared as the CD Firefall Reunion Live in February 2009.

Since 2008, Jock's son, Jamey Crow Bartley, sometimes guests with the band on drums and will fill in for Sandy Ficca on occasion.

During the summer of 2011, David Muse, who just survived a bout with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, returned to play shows with Firefall once again, alternating with Chris Ball before rejoining permanently.

In February 2014 founding member and bassist Mark Andes rejoined the band.[1]

In June 2014 Jace Hill (guitar and vocals) joined the band for a short spell.

In November 2014 the Colorado Music Hall of Fame announced that Firefall would be among the 2014 inductees at a January 2015 event at the Paramount Theater in Denver.[2]

In late 2014, Steve Weinmeister departed Firefall after almost twenty two years but did return in 2015 for a few guest appearances. He was succeeded by singer/guitarist Gary Jones (who'd previously subbed for Weinmeister for the one aforementioned gig back in November 1999).

On January 9, 2015 Firefall was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame alongside Poco, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Stephen Stills and Manassas at the Paramount Theater in Denver.

In 2015 Firefall toured with a lineup of: Jock Bartley, David Muse, Sandy Ficca, Mark Andes and Gary Jones.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Year Single Chart Positions
US US
AC		 AU
1976 "Livin' Ain't Livin'" 42 - -
"You Are the Woman" 9 6 -
1977 "Cinderella" 34 36 -
"Just Remember I Love You" 11 1 -
1978 "So Long" 48 - -
"Strange Way" 11 24 45
1979 "Goodbye, I Love You" 43 10 -
1980 "Headed For a Fall" 35 - -
"Love That Got Away" 50 9 -
"Only Time Will Tell" - 46 -
1981 "Staying with It" 37 46 -
1983 "Always" 59 24 74
"Runaway Love" 103 - -

References

  1. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/FIREFALLofficial
  2. ↑ http://secondstorygarage.com/colorado-music-hall-fame-inducts-firefall-manassas-nitty-gritty-dirty-band-poco/

External links

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