The Directions were a british mod revival band. The full line up of the band was John Burke (vocals) , Tony Burke (guitar,vocals and songwriter) , Martin Wilson (bass & vocals) , Steve Martinez (Drums) and Nick Simmons (Keyboards). Brothers John and Tony formed the band with Martin in December 1978, Steve joined the following April and Nick later on.The bands influence was David Bowie. They got there name from an old song. Their first gig was at the Trafalgar in their local are of Shepherds Bush in June 1979 after 3 weeks of headlining they went onto to Greyhound. It was at one of their first gigs there that Steve Budd of Tortch Records saw them and asked them to do a single. The result was the legendary "Three Bands Tonite" b/w "On The Train" both songs written by Tony. Two thousand copies got printed but only 1200 were sold due to the fact that 800 singles got damaged at their managers office. The 1200 that were for sale sold like hot cakes that is why the single is so dear today. The Directions used to play a set of around fifteen numbers including "Weekend Dancers" (which was their most popular number) , "I Should Have Known Better" , "The Trouble With You" , "Suicide Pact" , "Dangerous Times" , "What Goes On" , "It May Be Too Late" , Elesmere Street" , "If You’ve Ever Been Hurt By Me" , and "Vinny". The covers were "Back in My Arms Again" and The Kinks classic "Till the end of the Day" There were plans for a second single in the pipeline but soon after this The Directions seemed to disappear. Maybe they couldn’t get a deal and decided to call it a day. Nothing was heard of the Directions until two recordings of their demos turned up on Eddie Pillars "Beat Generation And The Angry Young Men" compilation LP (suss 1) in1984. The tracks were "Weekend Dancers" and "It May Be Too Late" and these turned out to be the highlights of a great LP. Tony Burke resurfaced as the leader of The Big Sound Authority and they had a few minor hits and one fairly big hit with "This House" THE STORY BEHIND THAT SONG "THREE BANDS TONITE" "Three Bands Tonite" isn’t a normal single in the sense that the single tells a story that actually happened. The Directions were due to play a gig with The Teeenbeats and The Sta – Prest at a club called The Global Village. The Club didn’t close until 2am but the PA didn’t turn up until 1am!! Tony Burke guitarist with The Directions said at the time "It was nobody’s fault the PA didn’t turn up The song wasn’t about that, it was about the response from the other two bands. We could have gone on with the gig with the amps available before the PA arrived . But as the songs says The Teenbeats didn’t want to do it because they’d lose a following a image they didn’t want to play with a bad sound. The Sta-Prest wouldn’t do it they demanded extra money just for hanging around. By the time the PA actually arrived it was half past midnight and so each band was designated half an hour to play a set. Unfortunately the other two bands blew The Directions out. The Sta Prest went on first and played for 45 minutes and then took 15 more minutes to clear their equipment. The Teenbeats then went on and played a 40 minute set. They actually left the stage ten minutes after the club was due to close. Tony Burke explained why they wrote the song "At the stage I wrote that song we were still doing our residency at the Trafalgar. The Global Village was for us like the f*****g Empire Pool. The actual song is not being vindictive it’s not digging them out. We’ve played with the bands concerned since then and they say to us that they didn’t mind but apparently they’re not too happy about it, It wasn’t just a get them back thing I was disillusioned by their attitude. This artist description is stolen from this website: http://groups.msn.com/MARCHOFTHEMODS/thedirections.msnw Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.