There’s never a bad time to revisit The Sound but a recent feature piece in Uncut is the reasoning for my current listening session. Using the recent uptick in interest in the late Adrian Borland’s outfit – specifically the 2016 documentary Walking In The Opposite Direction, the 2023 biography Destiny Stopped Screaming: The Life and Times of Adrian Borland, and the recent reissues of their first three albums – they interview friends and bandmates to cover the story of the band from their origins in the late ’70s as The Outsiders through their failure to turn great songwriting into success in the’80s and Borland’s growing mental illness, culminating in his suicide in 1999. Obviously, there’s more in-depth investigations into Borland’s life and work – see above – but the Uncut piece is a great read.
“Winning” was the opening track from their 1981 second album From The Lion’s Mouth, and sadly the final song the band performed live:
On December 5, 1988, they played their final show at De Boerderij in Zoetermeer. “Halfway through ‘Winning’ the guitar stopped,” says Dudley. “Adrian just put it down and walked offstage. That’s the last thing we did together.”
“Everything went into the music”: the tragic genius of The Sound’s Adrian Borland, the lost prophet of post-punk @ Uncut
As it was never released as a single, there was no video (though I don’t think there were any videos for the songs that were singles), there is footage from their three-song set at the No Nukes festival in Utrecht, Netherlands in April 1982, from which I’d previously shared their performance of “Missiles”. There’s not a lot of good video footage of the band, so this performance gets a lot of mileage.
And because I’m me, here’s some cover/tutorial videos for the song for both guitar and bass. It’s not the most complex song, but it definitely has a vibe and the atmosphere is undeniable.
