Dave Ball Of Soft Cell Dies At 66
The electronic musician, also known for his work with The Grid, died peacefully in his sleep.
Dave Ball, the electronic musician who rose to fame as one half of the synth pop duo Soft Cell, has died. Representatives for Ball told The Guardian that the musician “passed away peacefully in his sleep at his London home on Wednesday.” Ball was 66 years old.
His Soft Cell bandmate Marc Almond paid tribute to Ball on his Instagram page Thursday morning, writing that Ball was “for a long while and his health had been in slow decline over recent years.” Remembering his colleague as a “wonderful brilliant musical genius,” Almond wrote, “He will always be loved by fans who loved his music. It’s a cliche to say, but it lives on and somewhere at any given time around the world someone listens to, plays, dances, and gets pleasure from a Soft Cell song.”
Born in Chester, England in 1959, Ball was adopted as a child and raised in Blackpool. Ball remembered Blackpool as “a great place to grow up, really, because you’ve got the beach and all the amusement arcades” in an interview with The Quietus, and took an interest in music early on. After being inspired by Kraftwerk’s 1975 album Autobahn, Ball eventually studied at Leeds Polytechnic, where he quickly met Almond. The two formed Soft Cell in 1979.
Though their first couple singles were not major successes, their third became a global hit. “Tainted Love,” a cover of a 1964 song originally sung by Gloria Jones, shot the group to stardom and kicked off a string of hits in the United Kingdom, including “Bedsitter,” “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye,” “Torch,” and “What.” However, the success took a toll on the two musicians, and they dissolved the group in 1984, though they eventually reunited in 2000, and performed together as Soft Cell as recently as 2023.
After the dissolution of Soft Cell, Ball continued to make music, forming the duo The Grid with Richard Norris in 1988 and dabbling in the rave scene and the acid house genre. In the 1990s, Ball produced music for other artists, including “Breathe” from Kylie Minogue’s 1997 album Impossible Princess, which became a top 20 hit in the U.K. Reflecting on his career in 2020, Ball said. “I’m quite pleased with what I’ve done.”
