Dave Ball, a key member of the pioneering 1980s electronic music duo Soft Cell, has died at the age of 66.
Alongside vocalist Marc Almond, the team achieved a global success with their cover of Gloria Jones' Tainted Love in 1984, and their first record their initial full-length release is regarded as a classic of synth-pop.
He subsequently founded the innovative electronic act The Grid, who secured chart success with their 1994 single Swamp Thing.
Ball passed away calmly in his rest at his residence in London on October 22, just weeks after playing a featured performance with Soft Cell at the Rewind Festival in the Thames-side town.
Recent Health Challenges
During that show, Ball performed in a wheelchair, as he had for the last two years, following a spate of ill-health.
"I ended up injure myself quite a bit," he stated in 2023. "I broke lower vertebrae in my spine and cracked about multiple ribs and broke my wrist."
After catching a lung infection and developing sepsis, he was placed in an induced coma and remained in hospital for half a year.
However, he had been in "a great place emotionally" during the warmer months, as he was developing a new album with Almond, called the upcoming Danceteria, which is set for release in the coming year.
"He was concentrated and very pleased with the latest project that we literally finished only a short time ago," stated the vocalist in a tribute.
"It's truly heartbreaking as next year was all set to be such an uplifting year for him, and I find comfort from the knowledge that he heard the finished record and felt that it was a masterpiece."
Tributes
Almond referred to his collaborator as "a wonderfully brilliant creative mastermind", adding: "He was the core essence of Soft Cell and I'm very proud of our legacy.
"Many thanks Dave for being an significant part of my life and for the songs you created with me. I wouldn't be where I am without you."
Richard Norris from The Grid, also paid tribute, remembering Ball's "endless laughter" and "steadfast support".
"Forming a duo with someone is different from joining a group, the connection is incredibly close," he added.
"That was the case with us. We experienced so many remarkable, extraordinary, memorable experiences as a team. Many thanks, Dave."
Early Life
Brought into the world into a single-parent household in Chester in the late 50s, Ball was given up for adoption when he was 18 months of age.
He was raised in Blackpool with his new family his caregivers, who altered his given name from Paul to his adopted name, alongside his sibling Susan, who was similarly welcomed.
He met Almond at Leeds Polytechnic in 1977, where they were both studying art. Fuelled by a mutual passion of a music genre, they formed Soft Cell the same year, and quickly produced an EP.
Creative Collaboration
The duo were an distinctive pairing: Ball was the quiet musician, bent over his synthesizer, while Almond was a flamboyant performer, all sparkle and eye-liner; but they achieved a unique musical alchemy.
Ball had cultivated a interest with electronic instruments after viewing Kraftwerk appear on a television science show Tomorrow's World, and started to combine moody electronic sounds to the soaring melodies Almond was composing.
Tainted Love became the UK's second most popular single of 1981, selling 21 million units worldwide. Alongside hits by other artists, contemporary bands and Ultravox, it helped paved the way for the electronic music style of the 1980s.
The track was also included on their first album, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, which spawned two further top five hits: Bedsitter and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye.
They followed the album up with the stand-alone single, Torch, which peaked at number two in the following year.
Career Highlights
Success had its benefits. "I loved being able to purchase my first home, having money and travelling, which might seem like a beauty queen," Ball not long ago shared with a publication.
But it also presented problems. "Newfound wealth meant we could afford newfound drugs to alleviate the monotony" of media interviews and TV performances, Ball said.
"I realize that's a cliché, but it's a cliché for a valid cause, because it works for so many musicians."
Amidst the party-filled existence, the pair were also growing distant, but they managed to create a second memorable record - the wayward, edgy and aptly-titled The Art Of Falling Apart.
They put out another album, their 1984 release This Last Night In Sodom, before dissolving the band to concentrate on individual endeavors.
Almond proceeded to have a successful solo career, including the top 10 hit Something's Got A Hold Of My Heart; while Ball formed The Grid, who mixed acid house with ambient pop over a enduring collaboration.
Later Work and Comebacks
Soft Cell reunited in 2001, releasing the charting album Cruelty Without Beauty.
Following another break, 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 large venue on 30 September, 2018.
However, they stayed together, recording their latest project, Happiness Not Included, during the pandemic restrictions.
Ball lately described the band's new album as a homage to the New York club scene they frequented while recording their initial records.
He added that his period in hospital had shaped the band's sound.
"I had strange recollections when I was coming and going of the hospital because I was on morphine," he told a publication.
"The new songs are a electronic representation of the noises in my head from those days.
"Simultaneously, it's about the times me and Marc had in the 1980s."
The final mixes were finished only days before Ball died. It is scheduled for release in Spring 2026.
