Firefall is an American soft rock band that formed in Boulder, Colorado, in 1974. It was founded by Rick Roberts, former member of the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Jock Bartley, who had been Tommy Bolin's replacement in Zephyr. Other members have included Mark Andes, Larry Burnett, David Muse, and Michael Clarke, the latter also formerly of the Flying Burrito Brothers and an original member of the Byrds.

The band's biggest hit single, "You Are the Woman", peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 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).

History

In 1973 Rick Roberts and Jock Bartley met 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 in Boulder, Colorado, Roberts was impressed by Bartley's guitar work, and the duo soon began practicing together. Encouraged to form a band, they contacted bassist Mark Andes (a former member of the California bands Spirit and Jo Jo Gunne) who had temporarily retired to the mountains outside Boulder, and singer/ guitarist/ composer Larry Burnett (whom Roberts had met in his travels earlier that year). After Andes and Burnett joined in 1974, the band was called Firefall.

Guitarist/keyboardist Mark Hallman was another musician considered for Firefall, but Hallman rejected the offer and remained with his band Navarro. The drummer was Michael Clarke, who had been a member of The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers.

Breakthrough and success

thumb|The group in 1977

In 1975 Firefall recorded a demo tape consisting of three songs produced by Chris Hillman. Andes, Bartley and Roberts were then brought into Hillman's band. Before scheduled performances at The Other End in New York City in June 1975, Hillman became ill and was unable to play all the shows. Burnett and Clarke were then flown in to complete the commitments as Firefall. A&R representatives from Atlantic Records, who had already heard the band's demo tape, saw the Other End shows and signed Firefall to a multi-album contract. During the summer, when the contract was signed, Roberts was playing as a member of Stephen Stills's band, so work on the band's first album was delayed until late 1975. Roberts' high school friend David Muse was brought in before recording at Criteria Studios in Miami. The producer was Jim Mason, who had worked with the band Poco.

The album Firefall was recorded in one month and released in April 1976. two months after its release. The single "Just Remember I Love You", with backing vocals by Timothy B. Schmit, reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In a 2012 interview, Roberts recalled what was going on at this time: "Our business managers at that time were Dottie Ross and Mick Schneider, who operated as D&M Management. Although we didn't know it, it would appear that Mick Schneider had his own designs on managing the band. I can't really prove that, but he had been filling the gap as our de facto manager ever since we had parted company with our last official guy and he was getting pretty comfortable calling the shots. Mick Fleetwood got interested in taking over after we had been touring as an opening act for Fleetwood Mac on their Rumours tour. We entered into a spoken agreement with him and he went to work restructuring our recording contract with Atlantic Records. Things happened during that time that made it an unworkable arrangement. The first thing probably went a good way towards undermining any chance of a healthy working relationship with Mick. The band went to his house in Bel Air, California one day to try and hash out a written agreement. It was summertime, so we all went out and sat down around the pool. Present were all the members of the band as well as Mick, his road manager and confidant John Courage and his lawyer, Nick Shapiro. As we started to go through the proposed contract, the band started to function in their usual fashion; disputing every second word and generally being impossible to deal with. We had a very bad habit of that in almost all our business dealings. We also seemed to find a way to make the very worst possible decision at every opportunity. It took us about two hours of haggling to get through the first seven or so paragraphs. Mick's lawyer was obviously getting frustrated by the nit picking and we were all getting a little short tempered. The second thing that happened was a lot more serious and probably dealt the killing blow. After Mick had gotten Atlantic to agree to restructure our contract with a sizable cash advance ($500,000 I think) and an increase in the percentage points, Mick Schneider rejected it as not being satisfactory! At that point, Mick (Fleetwood) decided that maybe managing Firefall was not in his best interests. As a result, we went for about another year and a half without an official manager and Mick Schneider stayed in nominal control. We were not the easiest band to work with at any time and considering the fatigue factor, we were probably raging jerks and for all the chart success we had achieved, we were hardly making a decent living. We were mostly serving as an opening act on a lot of 'A' list tours, and as such, we weren't being paid like a band with an unbroken string of gold and platinum albums and more than a half dozen straight top fifty singles. It was nice to be doing shows in sold-out arenas every night, but going home after the tour was over with hardly anything in your pocket dulled the thrill a little. That only increased the tension in the band."

In 1978 the band brought in Tom Dowd to produce their third album, Élan, In late 2014, Steven Weinmeister departed Firefall after almost twenty two years but did return in January 2015 for the Colorado Music Hall of Fame induction and to sub for an ill Bartley later that same year for dates on the east coast, in August. He was succeeded by singer/guitarist Gary Jones (who had previously subbed for Weinmeister for the one aforementioned gig back in November 1999 and for a few other shows in September 2014).

By late 2014, Firefall's lineup was Jock Bartley, David Muse, Sandy Ficca, Mark Andes, and Gary Jones. On January 9, 2015 Firefall was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame with Poco, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Stephen Stills, and Manassas, at the Paramount Theater in Denver.

Former Firefall bass player (in 1980) George Hawkins died on October 26, 2018, after a bout with cancer. Yet another former Firefall bassist, Bob Gaffney, also passed on in 2018.

In August 2019 after Mark Andes was sidelined after a hip replacement, Lance Hoppen (of Orleans), John Trujillo (a bassist friend of Sandy Ficca's), and former Firefall member Steven Weinmeister filled in for him. The band released Comet, their first new album in nearly 20 years, and first with Sunset Blvd Records, on December 11, 2020. The album featured a lineup of Jock Bartley, Mark Andes, David Muse, Sandy Ficca and Gary Jones.

In 2021, Firefall again did some shows as a trio, this time with Bartley, Jones and a returning Steve Weinmeister on bass, who ended up returning to the group to replace Jones going forward.

In 2022, David Muse was sidelined from touring after having once again fallen ill with cancer, that took his life on August 6, 2022. Jim Waddell, who had first played with Firefall in 1993, returned to cover for Muse. In July 2022 after Mark Andes retired from the road, current Babys singer/bassist John Bisaha joined the lineup.

In 2023, Firefall announced that their latest album, Friends & Family, would feature classic songs from other 1970s bands, including the Doobie Brothers, Heart, Fleetwood Mac, Loggins and Messina, the Band, Marshall Tucker Band and more. It was released on September 22, with Friends & Family 2 following in May 2025.

Members

Current members

  • Jock Bartley – guitar, vocals (1974–present)
  • Sandy Ficca – drums (1984–present)
  • Steven Weinmeister – guitar, bass, mandolin, keyboards, vocals (1993–2014, 2022–present)
  • Jim Waddell – keyboards, flute, saxophone (1993, 1995–1996, 1998–2000, 2003, 2022–present)
  • John Bisaha – bass, vocals (2022–present)

Former members

  • Rick Roberts – lead vocals, guitar (1974–1981, 1989–1992)
  • Larry Burnett – lead vocals, guitar (1974–1981)
  • Mark Andes - bass, vocals (1974–1980, 1981, 2014–2022)
  • Michael Clarke – drums (1974–1980, died 1993)
  • David Muse – keyboards, flute, saxophone (1975–1981, 1982–1983, 1994–1995, 2000–2003, 2011–2022; his death)
  • Tris Imboden – drums (1980–1981)
  • George Hawkins – bass, vocals (1980, died 2018)
  • Kim Stone – bass, vocals (1981)
  • Johnne Sambataro – lead vocals, guitar, keyboards (1982–1989)
  • Chuck Kirkpatrick – guitar, keyboards, vocals (1982–1987)
  • Greg Overton – bass, vocals (1982–1983)
  • Scott Kirkpatrick – drums (1982–1984)
  • Steve Hadjoupolos – keyboards, flute, saxophone (1983–1988)
  • Bob Gaffney – bass, vocals (1983–1987)
  • Mark Oblinger – guitar, keyboards, vocals (1987–1993)
  • Bil Hopkins – bass, vocals (1987–2014)
  • Dan Clawson – keyboards, flute, saxophone (1988–1993)
  • Bruce Crichton – lead vocals, guitar (1992–1993)
  • Steve Manshel – lead vocals, guitar (1993–1999)
  • Bray Ghiglia – keyboards, flute, saxophone (1993–1994)
  • Bob Fisher – keyboards, flute, saxophone (1996–1998, 2007)
  • Chris Ball – keyboards, flute, saxophone (2003–2011)
  • Gary Jones – guitar, keyboards, vocals (2014–2021)

Live substitutes

*Note: Current and former official band members who have served as a live substitute have the time of their substitution shown above.

  • Dan Holsten – drums (1979)
  • Eddie Gleason – bass, backing vocals (December 1987)
  • Steve Jenks – bass, backing vocals (Summer 1998)
  • Jamey Crow Bartley – drums (2008–present, occasionally)
  • Jace Hill – guitar, vocals (June 2014)
  • Lance Hoppen - bass, backing vocals (August 2019)
  • John Trujillo - bass, backing vocals (August 2019)

Studio contributors

  • Joe Lala – percussion

Timeline

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Discography

Albums

  • Firefall (Atlantic, 1976) U.S. No. 26, AUS No. 72
  • Luna Sea (Atlantic, 1977) U.S. No. 11, AUS No. 73