The Sound first formed in South London in 1979 out of the remnants of another band, the Outsiders, and consisted initially of Adrian Borland (vocals, guitar), Graham Bailey (bass), Bi Marshall (keyboards) and Mike Dudley (drums).
They signed to Korova (the same label as Echo & The Bunnymen), a post-punk offshoot label of Warner Brothers, and were tipped as potential stadium fillers.
Two albums, Jeopardy (1980) and From The Lion's Mouth (1981), (upon which Bi Marshall was replaced by Colvin 'Max' Mayers), followed, and combined Borland's tense, introspective lyricism with a brassy, anthemic sound.
Korova tried to push the Sound into recording something more radio-friendly and they responded by recording All Fall Down (1982), a harsh, discordant and distinctly uncommercial electro album, and were almost immediately dropped.
With their major label days at an end The Sound signed to Statik, a medium-sized independent label, and released a mini-album Shock of Daylight, their fourth album Heads and Hearts (1985) and their fifth, the powerful In the Hothouse (1986), a double live album recorded over the course of two nights in August 1985 at the London Marquee.
Statik went into liquidation, and left The Sound without an outlet for their music. Borland fell prey to a malignant mental illness and was diagnosed as suffering from paranoid, schizophrenic, manic depression. The group stayed together long enough to release a sixth album, Thunder Up (1987)
A European tour to promote Thunder Up in November 1987, however, ended in disaster when Borland had a breakdown during the first date in Vitoria, Spain at a venue called The End
Adrian saw this as an omen, following a long obsession with Jim Morrison and The Doors, all subsequent dates were cancelled.
The band took a short break and played a few final lack luster gigs in Holland to fulfill contractual obligations. Mike Dudley decided to leave the band shortly afterwards and the group quit a few weeks later in early 1988.
Adrian Borland began a solo career and recorded five low-key albums but continued to be plagued by mental illness.
As he put the finishing touches to his last album Harmony and Destruction Adrian began to show symptoms of illness again. He died on the early morning of April 26th 1999 after throwing himself in front of a train at Wimbledon Station.
Mike Dudley has now retired from music.
Graham Bailey moved to America in 1992 and has retired from music.
Colvin Mayers died from an Aids-related illness on Boxing Day 1993.