Firefly is the tenth studio album by English rock band Uriah Heep. It was released in March 1977 by Bronze Records in the UK and Warner Bros. Records in the US. It was their first album without lead vocalist and founding member David Byron, and the first of three albums with new singer John Lawton, formerly of Lucifer's Friend. Bassist Trevor Bolder, formerly of the Spiders from Mars, the backing band for David Bowie,"Trevor Bolder", The Times (Obituaries), 23 May 2013, p. 67. made his Uriah Heep debut on this album. Barring a break of about 18 months in the early 1980s, he remained with the group until his death in 2013.
The first single from the album was "Wise Man".
The original vinyl album was a gatefold sleeve, with a cardboard lyric liner.
The album was remastered and reissued by Castle Communications in 1997 with four bonus tracks, and again in 2004 in an expanded deluxe edition.
Reception
A retrospective review by AllMusic said that the album "pursued a stripped-down sound harking back to the group's early-'70s successes," and concluded that "Firefly remains one of the most cohesive albums from Uriah Heep's mid- to late-'70s period". Martin Popoff in his Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal defined the album as "a mixed bag of scroungy, comatose blues ballads, nerdy party rockers and scary prog rock abortions", proving the intensification of "the deconstruction of a once great collective".
Track listing
Personnel Uriah Heep Mick Box – guitars Ken Hensley – keyboards, guitars, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Firefly" Lee "The Bear" Kerslake – drums, backing vocals Trevor Bolder – bass guitar John Lawton – lead vocals
Production Gerry Bron – producer Peter Gallen – engineer John Gallen – assistant engineer Gail Clarke – cover concept and coordination Martin White – cover painting
Charts Chart (1977) PeakpositionDanish Albums (Hitlisten)12 Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts) 21
References
External links The Official Uriah Heep Discography