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Biography
Adrian Borland used to be the songwriter, main vocalist and guitarist in legendary UK band The Sound, who split in early 1988. While his former bandmates discontinued their musical careers, Borland moved to the Netherlands in 1998 in order to found a new band, after initially going there on holiday and to meet his manager (Rob Acda). Adrian Borland and The Citizens was formed there, taking advantage of the popularity of The Sound on the continent, and the relative inexpense of venues in the Low Countries.
In 1989 Adrian Borland and The Citizens released Alexandria, a huge departure musically from The Sound's final album Thunder Up and featuring four backing vocalists, bass, cello, clarinet, drums and kettle drums, piano, saxophone, harmonica, tambourine, viola, violin and guitar. Some continuity was provided by former Sound bandmate Colin 'Max' Mayers collaborating by reprising his role of keyboardist, while Nick Robbins engineered and co-produced the album with Borland. The album featured much calmer, lighter tracks than those on Thunder Up, such as "Light The Sky" and "Rogue Beauty". Some tracks deal with Borland's own precarious emotional state, such as "No Ethereal" and "Deep Deep Blue". The album, however, suffered from poor sales, selling an estimated 10,000 copies on the continent and a mere 1000 in England. Borland attributed this to poor distribution.
