In 1981, an unlikely group from Leeds scored a number one hit with their icy cover version of an obscure 60s soul hit.
With Tainted Love, Soft Cell set a template for 80s synth-pop duos: The flamboyant frontman paired with an unassuming keyboard technician.
Dave Ball, who has died at the age of 66, was that musical force, creating ominous, polyphonic soundscapes to match Marc Almond’s lyrics about X-rated movies and sado-masochism.
Tainted Love sold more than 21 million copies over the worl and was followed by hits such as Say Hello, Wave Goodbye and Torch, before the band split in 1984. Reunited in the 2000s, they had completed a new album in the days before Ball’s death.
In a statement, the musician’s family said he had died peacefully in his sleep at his home in London on Wednesday 22 October.
It comes less than two months after Soft Cell played a headline show to 20,000 fans at the Rewind Festival in Henley-on-Thames.
During that concert, Ball performed in a wheelchair, as he had for the last two years, following a spate of ill-health.
“I managed to damage myself quite a bit,” he told the Yorkshire Post in 2023. “I fractured lower vertebrae in my spine and cracked about five ribs and broke my wrist”.
After catching pneumonia and developing sepsis, he was placed in an induced coma and remained in hospital for seven months.
However, he had been in “a great place emotionally” over the summer, as he worked on Soft Cell’s new album, Danceteria, which is scheduled for release next year.
“He was focused and so happy with the new album that we literally completed only a few days ago,” said Almond in a tribute.
“It’s so sad as 2026 was all set to be such an uplifting year 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 has thanked his bandmate for “being an immense part of my life and for the music you gave me”, adding: “I wouldn’t be where I am without you.”
Ball had also been part of the pioneering techno duo The Grid, who scored a UK top 10 hit in 1994 with the banjo-powered Swamp Thing.
His bandmate from that era, Richard Norris, also paid tribute, remembering Ball’s “endless laughter” and “unwavering friendship”.
“Being in a duo with someone is different from being in a band, the bond is very tight,” he added.
“That’s how it was with us. We went through so many remarkable, extraordinary, life-affirming experiences together. Thank you, Dave.”
Born into a single-parent household in Chester in 1959, Ball was given up for adoption when he was 18 months old.
He grew up in Blackpool with adoptive parents Donald and Brenda Ball, who changed his first name from Paul to David, alongside his younger sister Susan, who was also adopted.
He met Almond at Leeds Polytechnic in 1977, where they were both studying art. Fuelled by a shared love of Northern Soul, they formed Soft Cell the same year, and quickly recorded an EP, which was given early airtime by Radio 1’s John Peel.
They were an unusual pairing: Ball was quietly hunched over his keyboard, while Almond was a flamboyant showman, all glitter and eye-liner; but they achieved a rare musical alchemy.
Ball had developed a fascination with synthesizers after watching Kraftwerk appear on BBC science show Tomorrow’s World, and began to marry dark electronica to the soaring melodies Almond was writing.
Tainted Love became the UK’s second biggest-selling single of 1981, shifting 21 million copies worldwide. Alongside hits by Gary Numan, Human League and Ultravox, it helped paved the way for the synth-pop sound of the 80s.
The song was also included on their full-length debut, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, which spawned two further top five singles: Bedsitter and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye.
They followed the album with the stand-alone single, Torch, which peaked at number two in 1982.
Fame had its upsides. “I loved being able to afford my first home, having money and travelling, which makes me sound like a Miss World,” Ball recently told Classic Pop Magazine.
But it also presented problems. “Newfound wealth meant we could afford newfound drugs to relieve the boredom” of media interviews and TV performances, Ball said.
“I know that’s a cliché, but it’s a cliché for a good reason, because it works for so many bands.”
Amidst the hedonistic lifestyle, the duo were also drifting apart, but they managed to create a second classic album – the wayward, tense and aptly-titled The Art Of Falling Apart.
They released one more album, 1984’s This Last Night In Sodom, before dissolving the band to concentrate on other projects.
Almond went on to have a successful solo career, including the top 10 hit Something’s Got A Hold Of My Heart; while Ball created The Grid, who mixed acid house with ambient pop over a long-lasting collaboration.
Soft Cell reunited in 2001, producing the Top 40 album Cruelty Without Beauty.
After another hiatus, 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 O2 Arena on 30 September, 2018.
However, they remained together, recording their fifth album, Happiness Not Included, during the 2020 Covid lockdown.
Ball recently described the band’s new music as a tribute to the New York club scene they frequented while recording their first two albums.
He added that his time in hospital had influenced the band’s sound.
“I had strange recollections when I was in and out of hospital because I was on morphine,” he told Classic Pop.
“The new songs are a digital reflection of the sounds in my head from that time.
“In parallel, it’s about the times me and Marc got up to in the 80s.”
The final mixes were completed only days before Ball died. It is due for release in Spring 2026.
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