Mike Dudley was the original drummer in South London-based quartet The Sound.
After the group released their sixth album in 1987, "Thunder Up", the subsequent European tour to promote it ended in disaster when Borland had a mental breakdown at the first date in Spain and all tour dates had to be cancelled.
Mike Dudley decided to leave the band shortly afterwards. Recalls the drummer: "I decided to leave the band shortly after this for reasons other than Adrian's illness. Rather than elaborate, it is sufficient to say that these were an amalgam of all the usual hackneyed reasons rock bands split up rather than anything terribly interesting. I did, however, see it as a means of ensuring that Adrian had a complete break from all the things that were exacerbating his condition because I knew that my move would cause the band to split. And so it proved. The group imploded a few weeks later in early 1988."
Dudley gave up drumming in 1988. To join another band after eight years with The Sound was impossible, he syas: "The whole thing and especially it's climax in the previous year was, frankly, so traumatic that I needed to get grounded more than anything else. I got myself what most Mothers would describe as a "proper job". Currently, I am working in Occupational Psychology as an IT Manager." Michael Dudely has now retired from music.