Dave Ball, a key member of the groundbreaking 1980s electronic music band Soft Cell, has passed away at the age of 66.
Together with singer Marc Almond, the pair achieved a worldwide hit with their cover of Gloria Jones' Tainted Love in 1984, and their debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret is considered a seminal work of electronic music.
He subsequently formed the innovative electronic act The Grid, who achieved chart success with 1994's the hit Swamp Thing.
Ball passed away peacefully 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 the Thames-side town.
Health Struggles
During that performance, Ball performed in a mobility chair, as he had for the previous couple of years, after a spate of ill-health.
"I managed to damage myself significantly," he commented in 2023. "I broke lower vertebrae in my spine and fractured about multiple ribs and fractured my wrist."
After catching a lung infection and developing blood poisoning, he was placed in an induced coma and remained in the hospital for seven months.
However, he had been in "a great place emotionally" during the warmer months, as he worked on a new album with Almond, titled Danceteria, which is set for publication in the coming year.
"He was concentrated and so happy with the new album that we actually finished only a few days ago," said the singer in a tribute.
"It's so sad as next year was completely planned to be such an positive year for him, and I find comfort from the knowledge that he listened to the finished record and felt that it was a great piece of work."
Heartfelt Messages
Almond referred to his collaborator as "a wonderfully brilliant musical genius", stating: "He was the heart and soul of Soft Cell and I'm extremely pleased of our body of work.
"Thank you Dave for being an immense part of my life and for the songs you created with me. I wouldn't be where I am without your influence."
Richard Norris from The Grid, also paid tribute, recalling Ball's "constant humor" and "steadfast support".
"Forming a duo with someone is distinct from joining a band, the bond is very tight," he continued.
"That was the case with us. We went through so many extraordinary, extraordinary, life-affirming experiences together. Thank you, Dave."
Formative Years
Born into a single-parent household in Chester in 1959, Ball was put up for adoption when he was a year and a half old.
He grew up in Blackpool with his new family Donald and Brenda Ball, who changed his given name from his birth name to David, together with his sibling Susan, who was also adopted.
He encountered Almond at Leeds Polytechnic in the late 70s, where they were both learning fine arts. Inspired by a mutual passion of a music genre, they established Soft Cell the very year, and quickly recorded an EP.
Musical Partnership
The pair were an distinctive combination: Ball was the reserved technician, hunched over his keyboard, while Almond was a charismatic performer, all sparkle and eye-liner; but they attained a rare creative synergy.
Ball had developed a interest with electronic instruments after watching Kraftwerk perform on BBC program a popular series, and began to marry moody electronic sounds to the catchy tunes Almond was composing.
Tainted Love became the UK's second biggest-selling single of the early 80s, selling 21 million units worldwide. Together with hits by Gary Numan, contemporary bands and Ultravox, it helped paved the way for the electronic music style of the 1980s.
The song was also included on their first album, their initial LP, which produced two further top five hits: Bedsitter and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye.
They followed the album up with the stand-alone single, Torch, which reached at the second position in the following year.
Career Highlights
Fame had its upsides. "I enjoyed being able to purchase my initial property, having financial security and travelling, which might seem like a Miss World," Ball not long ago told with a music magazine.
But it also caused problems. "Newfound wealth allowed we could purchase newfound drugs to alleviate the monotony" of press appearances and television shows, Ball said.
"I know that's a common saying, but it's a cliché for a valid cause, because it works for so many bands."
During the party-filled existence, the duo were also growing distant, but they managed to create a follow-up classic album - the wayward, tense and aptly-titled The Art Of Falling Apart.
They released another LP, their 1984 release This Last Night In Sodom, before ending the band to concentrate on individual endeavors.
Almond went on to have a successful solo career, including the chart-topping single Something's Got A Hold Of My Heart; while Ball formed The Grid, who mixed dance music with ambient pop over a long-lasting collaboration.
Later Work and Comebacks
Soft Cell came back together in 2001, producing the Top 40 record Cruelty Without Beauty.
Following a further hiatus, they returned 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 O2 Arena on 30 September, that year.
Yet, they stayed active, creating their latest project, Happiness Not Included, during the 2020 restrictions.
Ball lately characterized the duo's upcoming release as a homage to the New York club scene they visited while making their initial records.
He added that his period in medical care had influenced the band's sound.
"I had unusual memories when I was in and out of the hospital because I was on morphine," he explained to a publication.
"The new songs are a electronic representation of the sounds in my mind from those days.
"Simultaneously, it's about the times me and Marc had in the 80s."
The last versions were completed only a short time before Ball died. It is scheduled for launch in the spring of 2026.
