Di-Rect

Di-rect is a rock band from the Hague, Netherlands, which was first formed in 1999. The lineup consists of Jamie Westland (drums), Frans "Spike" van Zoest (guitars), Bas van Wageningen (bass) and Tim Akkerman ( former vocals and guitars).

Early history

Di-rect began in October 1999 when 15 year old Jamie Westland asked his father Dennis to help him set up a band. Three other teenagers joined him, the oldest still only 19. Within a few months Di-rect had completed a five track demo which included the song "Just the Way I Do". 3FM radio DJ Rob Stenders saw them play live and was impressed by them. He played a song from their demo on national radio, and this generated considerable interest by record companies. Two months later Di-rect signed with Dino Music/EMI.

Recording history

This article may be written from a fan's point of view, rather than a neutral point of view. Please clean it up to conform to a higher standard of quality, and to make it neutral in tone. (March 2007)

In 2001 they released a single of "Just the Way I Do" followed by their debut album Discover. The album reached the top 100, with three further singles My Generation (a The Who cover), Inside my Head and "Free" charting in the Dutch top 40.

In February 2002 the band received a Hitkrant award for Best Dutch Rock Act and in April they were nominated for four TMF awards. They were also invited to appear at the prestigious Pinkpop festival, where they played for an audience of 60,000. Later that year they also performed at the Parkpop festival in their hometown, The Hague, with more than 400,000 people visiting the festival.

In January 2003 their debut album Discover turned gold, and a few weeks later the band got an Edison award for best single 2002 ("Inside My Head"). Before the release of their second album, Over the Moon, in April 2003, Di-rect released 2 singles: "Adrenaline" and "She". Adrenaline became a top 10 hit in the Netherlands and "She" reached 2nd place in the charts. Just before the release of Over the moon, Di-rect received 2 TMF awards, for Best Rock Act and Best Video (for "Adrenaline"). In the summer of 2003 the band gained an advertising deal with Pepsi and later that year they released a single called "Name of the Game" in cooperation with Pepsi. Their photo appeared on 8,000,000 Pepsi bottles.

Two further singles from their second album also reached the top 40; "Rollercoaster" and "Don't Kill me Tonight". In April 2004 they received another TMF award for best video clip for "Rollercoaster".

In January 2005 they released a third album, All Systems Go!, which entered the Dutch album chart at #1. The first single from the album "Hungry for Love" (a cover of the song by Alistair Griffin) reached #3 in the singles chart. Two further singles, "Cool Without You" and "Webcam Girl", also reached the top 10, and "Blind for You", featuring the classical pianist Wibi Soerjadi made #13. "Webcam Girl" was released in 2 parts and also featured live versions of the other two singles which were performed at Pinkpop 2005. In 2006 a cover of "Cool Without You" by German singer Tobias Regner was recorded for the soundtrack of the movie Open Season (Jagdfieber).

Following a tour of Italy and Indonesia they spent 3 weeks in the USA for the MTV Nederland Road rally, a game in which they raced another band, Nailpin, to travel across the country from the west to the east without any money.

Current

In February 2006, Di-rect signed with EMI for a further 2 albums. In June, they performed at the Parkpop festival at The Hague.

On February 3, Tim got a daughter. On , 2007, Di-rect released a new single called 'A Good Thing'. Their new album entitled 'Di-rect' was released in early March 2007. Their new single "I just can't stand" was released on , 2007.

In 2008, Di-rect was approached by Jan Rot for doing a theatre tour performing Tommy (the rock opera by the Who). Di-rect being huge the Who fans were sceptical because the lyrics were translated to Dutch. They found Jan Rot made an excellent translation and thus started the project "Di-rect doet Tommy" (Di-rect does Tommy).

In March 2009, Tim announced that he will leave Di-rect. The future of the band is still uncertain.

References and external links

Di-rect official website
Di-rect official myspace
Di-rect Lyrics
Di-rect doet Tommy official website
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