David Ball, theco-founder of cherished English synth pop brace Soft Cell has failed at 66. An Instagram post publicizing the news noted that Ball passed on Wednesday( Oct. 22) in his sleep at his London home.
The group’s songster, Marc Almond, called Ball a “ wonderfully brilliant musical genius ” in a lengthy homage in which he praised his musical mate of 46 times, saying that as he plodded to reuse the news he took solace that Ball was “ in such a great place emotionally ” lately.
“ He was concentrated and so happy with the new reader that we literally completed only a many days agone
. It’s so sad as 2026 was all set to be such an uplifting time 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, ” Almond wrote, adding that Ball’s recent compositions were “ better than ever. ”
At press time no cause of death had been blazoned.
Multi-instrumentalist Ball is best known for Soft Cell’s 1981 global megahit cover of Gloria Jones’ paining 1964 love song “ Tainted Love ” from the brace’s cherished debut reader,Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, which blended his future- sounding keyboard compositions with Almond’s hankering lyrics. The introducing synth pop group were faced by songster Almond’s dramatic lyrics and unisexual look, but it was Ball who wrote and performed nearly all of the band’s dark cotillion compositions at a time when synth- driven music was just arising as a kidney that would soon come to dominate the airwaves, and MTV, thanks to map- beating groups similar as Erasure, Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran and others.
According to an sanctioned memoir, the band formed in 1979 when Ball and Almond met as scholars at Leeds Polytechnic in England after Ball, a addict of the popular northern soul sound and German techno group Kraftwerk, moved from Blackpool to Leeds to study fine art. He first worked with Almond when he wrote an electronic background for one of the songster’s extemporized performance art pieces. That collab established the brace’s working template, with Almond as “ the gregarious showman and lyrist and Ball as his quiet, poker- faced antipode — a antipode who wen ton to come a intrepid sonic inventor. ”
The group released four further plant compendiums between 1982 and 2021, The Art of Falling piecemeal( 1982), This Last Night in Sodom( 1984), Cruelty Without Beauty( 2002) and Happiness Not Included( 2022). In addition to their hand hit “ Tainted Love, ” which hit No. 1 on the U.K. Mates Chart and spent 43 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100( peaking at No. 8) and vended an estimated 21 million clones worldwide, the group scored four further U.K. top 10 mates with “ Bedsitter, ” “ Torch, ” “ What! ” and “ Say Hello, Wave Goodbye. ”
Ball’s death came just weeks after the brace played a caption niche at England Rewind Festival in Henley- on- Thames, where the BBC reported that he performed in a wheelchair, as he’d for the once two times due to ongoing health issues as a result of damage from a former chine fracture suffered in 2023 in a fall, in which also broke five caricatures and his wrist. Ball latterly caught pneumonia and developed sepsis, which led to him being placed in an convinced coma during a seven month sanitarium stay.
David James Ball was born in Cheshire, England on May 3, 1959 and given up for relinquishment at 18- months old. In addition to his work with Soft Cell which resolve in 1984 and reunited in 2001 he released the 1983 solo reader In Strict Tempo, performed in several short- lived bands and banded with experimental videotape art noise collaborative Psychic television. It was during his time with that group that he teamed up with member patron/ tunesmith Richard Norris, with whom he formed the brace The Grid in 1988. The brace released six full- length compendiums over the times, beginning with 1990’s Electric Head through 2021’s Leviathan, a collaboration with King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp.
“ His melodies and hooks are still unmistakably Soft Cell, yet he always took it to the coming position too, ” Almond said of Ball. “ He was a wonderfully brilliant musical genius and the brace of us have been on a trip together for nearly 50 times. In the early days we were offensive and delicate, two truculent art scholars who wanted to do effects our way, indeed if it was the wrong way. We were naive and made miscalculations, although we noway really saw them as similar. It was all just a part of the adventure. Dave and I were always a bit chalk- and- rubbish, but perhaps that’s why the chemistry between us worked so well. ”
Though their working relationship was pointed by long gaps, Almond said the magic was ever-present. “ Whenever we came back together after long ages piecemeal there was always that warmth and chemistry, ” he wrote. “ There was a deep collective respect that gave our combined songwriting its unique power. We laughed a lot, and participated a sense of humour, and a love of film, books and music. Dave had shelves full of books and an array of awful and surprising musical references. He was the heart and soul of Soft Cell and I’m veritably proud of our heritage. ”
The band’s 2018 show in front of 20,000 suckers at the O2 in London was intended to be their farewell, but turned out to be the launch of their long last act, which included a 2022- 2023 40th anniversary stint of the U.K. and U.S. celebrating their debut reader.
Almond said it was fitting that their coming, and now last, reader together is called Danceteria, whose name harkens back to the early 1980s New York cotillion scene and the fabulous Manhattan café of that period that inspired so important of their music together; the LP is due out in spring 2026.
“ That was a time and place that really shaped us. As well as being quintessentially British, we always felt that we were also an memorial American band, ” Almond said of the club that formerly hosted a Soft Cell reader launch party. “ We’ve been invested in the Soft Cell myths and stories, and Danceteria will now stand as an reader that brings everything full circle for us. I just wish that Dave could have stayed on long enough to celebrate our 50 times together in a couple of time’s time. He’ll always be loved by the Soft Cell suckers who love his music and his music and memory will live on. At any given moment, someone nearly in the world will be getting pleasure from a Soft Cell song. Thank you Dave for being an immense part of my life and for the music you gave me. I would n’t be where I’m without you. ”
Listen to “Tainted Love” below.
