Dave Ball, one half of the groundbreaking 1980s synth-pop duo Soft Cell, has passed away at the age of 66.
Alongside vocalist Marc Almond, the team achieved a worldwide hit with their version of Gloria Jones' Tainted Love in 1984, and their debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret is considered a classic of electronic music.
He later founded the innovative techno group The Grid, who secured popular acclaim with their 1994 single the hit Swamp Thing.
Ball passed away peacefully in his sleep at his residence in London on October 22, only a short time after performing a featured performance with Soft Cell at the Rewind Festival in the Thames-side town.
Recent Health Challenges
During that performance, Ball performed in a mobility chair, as he had for the previous couple of years, following a spate of health issues.
"I managed to injure myself quite a bit," he stated in 2023. "I broke spinal bones in my back and cracked about multiple ribs and fractured my wrist."
Following contracting pneumonia and developing sepsis, he was placed in an induced coma and remained in hospital for half a year.
Nevertheless, he had been in "high spirits emotionally" over the summer, as he was developing a new album with Almond, called the upcoming Danceteria, which is scheduled for publication next year.
"He was focused and so happy with the latest project that we literally completed only a few days ago," stated the singer in a tribute.
"It's truly heartbreaking as next year was completely planned to be such an uplifting year for him, and I find comfort from the fact that he heard the completed album and believed that it was a masterpiece."
Tributes
Almond described his collaborator as "an exceptionally talented musical genius", adding: "He was the core essence of Soft Cell and I'm extremely pleased of our legacy.
"Thank you Dave for being an significant aspect of my existence and for the music you created with me. I wouldn't be where I am without you."
Richard Norris from The Grid, shared his condolences, recalling Ball's "constant humor" and "steadfast support".
"Being in a partnership with someone is different from joining a band, the connection is very tight," he added.
"That's how it was with us. We experienced so many extraordinary, incredible, memorable moments together. Many thanks, Dave."
Early Life
Brought into the world into a single-parent household in the city of Chester in 1959, Ball was given up for adoption when he was 18 months old.
He was raised in the seaside town with adoptive parents his caregivers, who altered his first name from his birth name to David, together with his younger sister Susan, who was similarly welcomed.
He met Almond at an art college in the late 70s, where they were both studying art. Fuelled by a mutual passion of a music genre, they established Soft Cell the same year, and quickly produced an EP.
Musical Partnership
The duo were an distinctive combination: Ball was the reserved technician, hunched over his synthesizer, while Almond was a flamboyant showman, all glitter and eye-liner; but they attained a unique creative synergy.
Ball had developed a fascination with synthesizers after viewing Kraftwerk appear on BBC program a popular series, and started to marry moody electronic sounds to the catchy tunes Almond was composing.
Tainted Love became the United Kingdom's second most popular single of the early 80s, selling millions of copies worldwide. Together with hits by Gary Numan, contemporary bands and electronic acts, it helped paved the way for the electronic music style of the 1980s.
The track was also included on their first album, their initial LP, which produced two additional high-charting hits: Bedsitter and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye.
They continued the record up with the separate release, Torch, which peaked at number two in 1982.
Career Highlights
Success had its benefits. "I loved being able to purchase my first home, having financial security and exploring, which might seem like a beauty queen," Ball not long ago told with a music magazine.
But it also caused problems. "Newfound wealth allowed we could purchase substances to relieve the boredom" of press appearances and television shows, Ball said.
"I know that's a cliché, but it's a cliché for a good reason, because it applies for so many bands."
During the party-filled existence, the pair were also drifting apart, but they managed to produce a follow-up memorable record - the unconventional, tense and fittingly named The Art Of Falling Apart.
They put out one more album, their 1984 release This Last Night In Sodom, before dissolving the group to concentrate on other projects.
Almond proceeded to have a successful individual path, including the top 10 hit Something's Got A Hold Of My Heart; while Ball formed The Grid, who mixed dance music with melodic sounds over a enduring collaboration.
Reunions and Final Projects
Soft Cell came back together in 2001, producing the Top 40 record Cruelty Without Beauty.
After another break, they reappeared in recent years, releasing the new tracks Northern Lights and Guilty (Cos I Say You Are) before staging what was supposed to be a farewell show at the O2 Arena on 30 September, 2018.
However, they stayed together, recording their latest project, Happiness Not Included, during the pandemic restrictions.
Ball recently described the band's new album as a tribute to the New York club scene they visited while recording their initial records.
He added that his time in hospital had shaped the group's music.
"I experienced strange recollections when I was coming and going of hospital because I was on morphine," he explained to a music magazine.
"The new songs are a electronic representation of the sounds in my head from those days.
"Simultaneously, it's about the experiences we had in the 80s."
The last versions were finished only a short time before Ball passed away. It is due for launch in Spring 2026.
