Associated with A&M Records, as the 'AMS' prefix hints; though it had the 5000 numbering to itself. 'Music Week' of the 19th of October 1974 broke the news of Firefly's formation: the people involved were John Sherry and Miles Copeland, of management company Sherry / Copeland Artists, and Mike Stone, formerly head of publishers A. Schroeder. Stone was to handle the day-to-day operation of the label, with Sherry being responsible for agency direction and new talent acquisition. Firefly product was to be licensed under the A&M label throughout the rest of the world. In 'MW' of the 10th of January 1976 John Sherry gave the reasons for the label's formation, saying that in part it had been prompted by a wish to simplify the process of getting bands onto record - there would be no more long-drawn-out negotiations with record companies, as there was already an established link with a company that the label put its trust in. Some six months later, however, 'MW' reported that Sherry had taken his roster of acts and set a a new agency inside the NEMS organization, ending a three-year association with Miles Copeland. The move also appears to have ended Firefly.
In the event, Firefly turned out to be mainly a vehicle for records by Rock group Hustler, who were responsible for two albums and fours singles; Movies, who went on to record for GTO as 'The Movies', added an album and a single to the catalogue. Early copies of the first single, Hustler's, 'Get Outa My 'Ouse' b/w 'Happy Days' (AMS-5001) had the standard A&M label with a Firefly logo (1); later pressings had the standard Firefly label (2). Subsequent singles had a black 'A' on the appropriate side (3); the presence of that letter doesn't indicate a demo copy. As indicated above, numbering was in a dedicated AMS-5000 series, but a scratched-out AMS-7138 in the run-off of 'Get Outa My 'Ouse' suggests that initially singles may have been intended to share A&M's main AMS-7000 series. CBS handled manufacturing and distribution, as they did for all A&M product at the time.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.