Daily Planet

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About Daily Planet; 1983-1984

Daily Planet was our 2nd "progressive" rock band, and in some ways was the center of the most intense "Prog" scene for us during the early 80's. Daily Planet was formed in 1983 after the previous and initial original 'progressive' band, Fracture , which included me, Brian Preston, on bass, Robert Howerton, and Skip Williams, along with Mark Armitage (12 Oz. Curl) on drums.

Daily Planet had a core of dear young friends as musicians and various vocalists in its intense but short life. The members included: Robert Howerton on guitar (Gibson ES 335 and Les Paul), Skip Williams on guitar (Gibson SG), Jeff Lindsey on drums, Brian Preston on bass (Fender Telecaster bass!) and Tom Buckley as first and primary vocalist. Robert Howerton wrote most of the original music and (is) was a special talent indeed. He arranged parts for most of the instruments and taught these complex parts to the members. We all lived in a house together in Chapel Hill, the "Planet House", and practiced 3-5 days per week, which is what it took to learn the complex progressive songs that Robert wrote. We played quite a few local gigs during 1983 and 1984 and our sets included cover songs by Genesis, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Rush, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, The Police, Steely Dan among others. There are several recordings from this band; we were selected to be on a local compilation album, "New Faces", produced by local producer Steve Bass.

One day in 1983 we walked into a recording studio in Chapel Hill to record a 2 track demo for Steve Bass. We proceeded to perform an entire set of original music along with Aqualung by Jethro Tull, all accepted as first takes. The complexity, power and subtlety of Daily Planet's music shone through in that session and the engineer, Vic Lipscomb, and Mr. Bass were essentially blown away. That master 2 track tape has not been located as of this date (July 2003) but it is hoped that it will be found in Bass's archives so that transfer and mastering can proceed for a limited CD run in the future.

***UPDATE (11/03): Boohoo! The tapes have never been recovered!! The search continues, but they were not located in Bass' 'archives.' ***

A song entitled "The Alchemist" was then later recorded on 16 tracks for the New Faces album, a vinyl album which included other local artists ranging in styles from light jazzy pop to hard rock. It was a great experience but of course did little to promote Daily Planet as the album reached an audience in 1983 North Carolina which was clueless about a long 7/8 time prog rock song!

The following year, in 1984, another demo recording was made at the Planet House with our friend D. Philip Chalmers acting as the recording engineer. By this time Tom Buckley had left the band due to personal issues and a new singer, "Craig", was brought in for a brief time. Four songs were recorded including two covers, The Talking Heads' Burning Down the House and The Police's Message in a Bottle, but the quality and depth are really not there. Those original cassette mixes do exist in my archive.

The search for a new singer turned out to be a heart-wrenching, negative experience and we could never really get it going again. We were all young bucks and all of a sudden in late 1984 we sort of gave up and let Daily Planet die a painful death. Our youthful vision which was full of energy and potential had burned out as quickly as it had begun. I truly believe that if that band had been able to stay together and mature we would have been a serious force with major label potential. As it stands, the band is somewhat legendary in these parts. Those who were there as part of the scene can relate. Word is there are some DP bootleg recordings from live shows that are still treasured by their owners.

Not long afterwards our family tree, as it were, expanded to new more mature prog rock efforts with the merging of me with David Bollinger to begin what was to become Freehand. Robert Howerton and Jeff Lindsey both joined (along with Todd Barbee for one year.) Click HERE for more on Freehand.

Look for additions to this Daily Planet page as I collect pictures and hopefully locate those original 2 track reels and treat them, transfer to digital, and re-master for a limited CD release. Original artwork even exists which has never been used!

May the prog rock gods smile upon us and protect those fragile magnetic tapes until they can be captured and saved with modern technology!!

* Written by Brian Preston, July 2003