17 Facts About Adrian Borland

Adrian Kelvin Borland was an English singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer, best known as the frontman of post-punk band The Sound.

Adrian Kelvin Borland was born in the Hampstead area of London, the son of Bob Borland, a physicist at the National Physical Laboratory, and Win, an English teacher.

At primary school the young Borland was already friends with future Sound bassist Graham "Green" Bailey, and would meet Stephen Budd, closely involved with his band the Sound in their early years, in his early teens.

Adrian Borland was the only other kid I knew with an electric guitar.

From this point on Adrian Borland became critically acclaimed, if never a household name.

The touring for Thunder Up culminated in disaster for the band when Adrian Borland left halfway through a set at Zoetermeer, Netherlands.

Around this time had Adrian Borland begun working on music production; he produced albums by Felt, Into Paradise and Waiting Sound.

In 1994, Adrian Borland returned to the UK to record his third album, Beautiful Ammunition, at the Acton Survival Studios on Resolve Records.

The album lent its name to Cinematic Overview the following year, a compilation album of Adrian Borland's work stretching all the way back to the mid seventies.

However, the money invested in the album allowed for much better production, a direct result of which was the recording and inclusion of "Baby Moon", a song which Adrian Borland had held onto since 1993 but did not want to waste 'on a lo-fi production'.

Adrian Borland's voice, when he sings like he means it, is a glorious amalgam of Burgess, Ian McNabb, Ian McCulloch, Mike Peters, Jim Kerr and Then Jerico's Mark Shaw, the breathy intimacy that for me misfired on Cinematic here filling, elegantly, the roll that hoarse fervor played in his singing with the Sound.

Adrian Borland was proud of the work, and said so in his last public writing, dated 18 March 1999:.

Adrian Borland had still been denied commercial success or widespread popularity outside of continental Europe, and he had tried to kill himself at least three times, the third when he jumped in front of a car.

Adrian Borland called 999 but by the time police arrived he had disappeared and was reported as a high-risk missing person.

That night Mr Adrian Borland turned up at Kennington Police Station claiming he was being chased.

Adrian Borland alerted police and following a series of phone calls and hold-ups he was eventually dropped off at his mother's home at around 3.15 am by officers who described his state of mind as "lucid".

The night of the 25th, Adrian Borland slipped away to Wimbledon Station.