Dave Ball, one half of the innovative 1980s synth-pop band Soft Cell, has passed away at the age of 66.
Alongside singer Marc Almond, the team achieved a worldwide hit with their version of Gloria Jones' Tainted Love in 1984, and their first record Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret is regarded as a seminal work of synth-pop.
He later formed the pioneering techno group The Grid, who achieved popular acclaim with 1994's the hit Swamp Thing.
Ball passed away calmly in his sleep at his residence in London on Wednesday 22 October, just weeks after performing a featured performance with Soft Cell at the Rewind Festival in Henley-on-Thames.
Recent Health Challenges
During that performance, Ball performed in a mobility chair, as he had for the last two years, following a spate of health issues.
"I managed to injure myself quite a bit," he commented in 2023. "I broke lower vertebrae in my back and cracked about multiple ribs and fractured my wrist."
Following catching pneumonia and suffering from sepsis, he was put in an medically-induced sleep and remained in the hospital for seven months.
Nevertheless, he had been in "high spirits mentally" during the warmer months, as he worked on a new album with Almond, called Danceteria, which is scheduled for release in the coming year.
"He was focused and so happy with the latest project that we actually completed only a few days ago," stated the singer in a heartfelt message.
"It's truly heartbreaking as next year was all set to be such an uplifting time for him, and I take some solace from the knowledge that he heard the finished record and believed that it was a great piece of work."
Heartfelt Messages
Almond described his collaborator as "a wonderfully brilliant musical genius", stating: "He was the core essence of Soft Cell and I'm extremely pleased of our body of work.
"Thank you Dave for being an immense part of my existence and for the music you created with me. I wouldn't be where I am without you."
His Grid bandmate from The Grid, also paid tribute, remembering 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 was the case with us. We went through so many extraordinary, incredible, memorable experiences together. Thank you, Dave."
Formative Years
Brought into the world into a one-parent family in Chester in the late 50s, Ball was given up for adoption when he was a year and a half of age.
He was raised in the seaside town with adoptive parents his caregivers, who altered his first name from Paul to his adopted name, together with his sibling his sister, who was similarly welcomed.
He encountered Almond at Leeds Polytechnic in 1977, where they were both learning fine arts. Inspired by a shared love of Northern Soul, they formed Soft Cell the very year, and promptly produced an extended play.
Musical Partnership
The pair were an distinctive combination: Ball was the reserved musician, hunched over his synthesizer, while Almond was a flamboyant showman, all sparkle and eye-liner; but they achieved a rare creative synergy.
Ball had developed a interest with synthesizers after viewing the band Kraftwerk perform on a television program Tomorrow's World, and started to marry moody electronic sounds to the soaring melodies Almond was composing.
Tainted Love became the United Kingdom's second most popular single of 1981, shifting millions of units globally. Alongside hits by other artists, Human League and electronic acts, it helped paved the path for the electronic music style of the 1980s.
The song was also featured on their first album, their initial LP, which produced two additional high-charting hits: Bedsitter and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye.
They continued the album up with the stand-alone single, Torch, which reached at number two in 1982.
Professional Journey
Success had its upsides. "I loved being able to afford my first home, having financial security and travelling, which might seem like a Miss World," Ball not long ago told with a music magazine.
But it also presented problems. "Newfound wealth allowed we could afford newfound drugs to relieve the monotony" of press appearances and TV performances, Ball said.
"I know that's a cliché, but it's a cliché for a valid cause, because it applies for so many musicians."
During the party-filled existence, the pair were also growing distant, but they succeeded to produce a second classic album - the wayward, edgy and aptly-titled The Art Of Falling Apart.
They released one more album, their 1984 release This Last Night In Sodom, before dissolving the group to focus on other projects.
Almond proceeded to have a successful solo career, featuring the chart-topping single Something's Got A Hold Of My Heart; while Ball created The Grid, who combined acid house with ambient pop over a enduring collaboration.
Later Work and Comebacks
Soft Cell came back together in 2001, producing the Top 40 album Cruelty Without Beauty.
After a further break, they reappeared in recent years, issuing the new tracks Northern Lights and Guilty (Cos I Say You Are) before staging what was supposed to be a final performance at the large venue on 30 September, 2018.
However, they stayed active, creating their latest project, Happiness Not Included, during the pandemic Covid lockdown.
Ball lately described the band's upcoming release as a tribute to the NYC nightlife they visited while making their initial records.
He noted that his time in hospital had influenced the group's music.
"I experienced unusual memories when I was coming and going of the hospital because I was on morphine," he explained to a music magazine.
"Our latest tracks are a digital reflection of the sounds in my head from those days.
"In parallel, it's about the times me and Marc had in the 80s."
The last versions were completed only days before Ball passed away. It is scheduled for release in the spring of 2026.
