In memoriam ADRIAN BORLAND
(6-12-1957 - † 26-4-1999)

On April 26th. 1999 Adrian Borland died. Adrian took his own life in London on early Monday morning. He was right in the middle of the recording session for his new solo album "Harmony & Destruction". On Friday 23rd April, with 'Harmony and Destruction' nearly completed, he began to show signs in the studio of depression and agitation again, but promised to go home to rest before concluding work on the album on the Monday. Regardless of this agitated state, his goal was clear. He wished to finish this record, and continue to develop his career. He was extremely proud of this new work and very excited by it.
 

A visit to his ex-girlfriend on the Sunday, however, further tipped the balance. In the early hours of Monday 26th April, Adrian was found in a restaurant in nearby Kennington, confused and hearing voices, and was brought home in a police car. His elderly parents wanted to call a doctor, but Adrian, who had a horror of being sectioned again, insisted that he did not want to seek medical treatment until he had finished work on the album later that day. He disappeared though again that night. He had tried to commit suicide before, but this time was successful. He died later on that morning by throwing himself in front of a train at Wimbledon tube station. He was aged 41.

In summation, Adrian didn't really commit suicide, he was murdered by his illness which had troubled him since 1987 and he fought to the very end. Wally Brill spent some time in London with bassplayer Pat Rowles rough mixing the album as Adrian had left it. The overwhelming feeling that they had is that Adrian was full of hope and that he felt the worst of the disease was behind him... that, in fact, he had beaten the voices in his head. It's sad that they were wrong. Adrian Borland leaves a great work, which is documented on more than twenty albums . His last finished work is the second White Rose Transmission album "700 Miles Of Desert", which was recorded in Bremen between November 1998 and February 1999. The cd was released in Germany on June 21st.1999. Of course the acoustic tour of White Rose Transmission, which was scheduled for May 1999, couldn't take place without Adrian. Instead his friend Carlo van Putten and admirer Mark Burgess (The Chameleons) performed the White Rose Transmission songs, amongst others, as a tribute to Adrian on those evenings.
 

While working on "700 Miles Of Desert" we have seen Adrian in all his facet's again. As a creative perfectionist, full of humor and conversation; as a withdrawn melancholic; as an intelligent, ambitious artist and an absolutely reliable worker, who always played his music with such intensity. He was a very sensitive man and could often fall into deep depression. Looking back it's easy to read much into lines from his songs that profess a readiness to leave this world. Goodbyes were always one of Adrian's main themes but we shouldn't allow ourselves to interpret his songs in such a one-dimensional way.
 

The story of Adrian Borland and the Sound remains one of the saddest and most tragic in rock 'n' roll.