<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Dave Ball, one half of the pioneering 1980s synth-pop band Soft Cell, has died at the age of 66.<\/p>\n Alongside singer Marc Almond, the duo scored a worldwide hit with their cover of Gloria Jones’ Tainted Love in 1984, and their debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret is considered a classic of electronic music.<\/p>\n He later formed the pioneering techno group The Grid, who achieved chart success with 1994’s Swamp Thing.<\/p>\n Ball died peacefully in his sleep at his home in London on Wednesday 22 October, just weeks after playing a headline show with Soft Cell at the Rewind Festival in Henley-on-Thames.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n During that show, Ball performed in a wheelchair, as he had for the last two years, following a spate of ill-health.<\/p>\n “I managed to damage myself quite a bit,” he told the Yorkshire Post in 2023<\/a>. “I fractured lower vertebrae in my spine and cracked about five ribs and broke my wrist”. <\/p>\n After catching pneumonia and developing sepsis, he was placed in an induced coma and remained in hospital for seven months. <\/p>\n However, he had been in “a great place emotionally” over the summer, as he worked on a new album with Almond, called Danceteria, which is scheduled for release next year.<\/p>\n “He was focused and so happy with the new album that we literally completed only a few days ago,” said the singer in a tribute. <\/p>\n “It’s so sad as 2026 was all set to be such an uplifting year for him, and I take some solace from the fact that he heard the finished record and felt that it was a great piece of work.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Almond described his bandmate as “a wonderfully brilliant musical genius”, adding: “He was the heart and soul of Soft Cell and I’m very proud of our legacy.<\/p>\n “Thank you Dave for being an immense part of my life and for the music you gave me. I wouldn’t be where I am without you.”<\/p>\n Richard Norris from The Grid, also paid tribute, remembering Ball’s “endless laughter” and “unwavering friendship”.<\/p>\n “Being in a duo with someone is different from being in a band, the bond is very tight,” he added. <\/p>\n “That’s how it was with us. We went through so many remarkable, extraordinary, life-affirming experiences together. Thank you, Dave.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Born into a single-parent household in Chester in 1959, Ball was given up for adoption when he was 18 months old. <\/p>\n He grew up in Blackpool with adoptive parents Donald and Brenda Ball, who changed his first name from Paul to David, alongside his younger sister Susan, who was also adopted.<\/p>\n He met Almond at Leeds Polytechnic in 1977, where they were both studying art. Fuelled by a shared love of Northern Soul, they formed Soft Cell the same year, and quickly recorded an EP.<\/p>\n The duo were an unusual pairing: Ball was the quiet technician, hunched over his keyboard, while Almond was a flamboyant showman, all glitter and eye-liner; but they achieved a rare musical alchemy.<\/p>\n Ball had developed a fascination with synthesizers after watching Kraftwerk appear on BBC science show Tomorrow’s World, and began to marry dark electronica to the soaring melodies Almond was writing.<\/p>\n Tainted Love became the UK’s second biggest-selling single of 1981, shifting 21 million copies worldwide. Alongside hits by Gary Numan, Human League and Ultravox, it helped paved the way for the synth-pop sound of the 80s.<\/p>\n The song was also included on their full-length debut, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, which spawned two further top five singles: Bedsitter and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye. <\/p>\n They followed the album up with the stand-alone single, Torch, which peaked at number two in 1982.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Fame had its upsides. “I loved being able to afford my first home, having money and travelling, which makes me sound like a Miss World,” Ball recently told Classic Pop Magazine.<\/p>\n But it also presented problems. “Newfound wealth meant we could afford newfound drugs to relieve the boredom” of media interviews and TV performances, Ball said.<\/p>\n “I know that’s a clich\u00e9, but it’s a clich\u00e9 for a good reason, because it works for so many bands.”<\/p>\n Amidst the hedonistic lifestyle, the duo were also drifting apart, but they managed to create a second classic album – the wayward, tense and aptly-titled The Art Of Falling Apart.<\/p>\n They released one more album, 1984’s This Last Night In Sodom, before dissolving the band to concentrate on other projects.<\/p>\n Almond went on to have a successful solo career, including the top 10 hit Something’s Got A Hold Of My Heart; while Ball created The Grid, who mixed acid house with ambient pop over a long-lasting collaboration.<\/p>\n Soft Cell reunited in 2001, producing the Top 40 album Cruelty Without Beauty. <\/p>\n After another hiatus, they reappeared in 2018, releasing the original singles Northern Lights and Guilty (Cos I Say You Are) before performing what was supposed to be a farewell show at the O2 Arena on 30 September, 2018.<\/p>\n However, they remained together, recording their fifth album, Happiness Not Included, during the 2020 Covid lockdown.<\/p>\n Ball recently described the band’s new album as a tribute to the New York club scene they frequented while recording their first two albums.<\/p>\n He added that his time in hospital had influenced the band’s sound.<\/p>\n “I had strange recollections when I was in and out of hospital because I was on morphine,” he told Classic Pop.<\/p>\n “The new songs are a digital reflection of the sounds in my head from that time.<\/p>\n “In parallel, it’s about the times me and Marc got up to in the 80s.”<\/p>\n The final mixes were completed only days before Ball died. It is due for release in Spring 2026.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mark SavageMusic correspondent Getty Images Dave Ball (left) formed Soft Cell with Marc Almond in Leeds in 1977 Dave Ball, one half of the pioneering 1980s synth-pop band Soft Cell, has died at the age of 66. Alongside singer Marc Almond, the duo scored a worldwide hit with their cover of Gloria Jones’ Tainted Love … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Soft-Cells-musical-force-Dave-Ball-dies-aged-66.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7233,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7231\/revisions\/7233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/abe1b7e0-b00f-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp.webp\")
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