Soft Cell legend dies aged 66 - just weeks after completing new album
One half of iconic electronic dup Soft Cell - whose hits include Tainted Love and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye - has passed away at the age of 66.
Soft Cell's Dave Ball has died at the age of 66 - just weeks after completing a new album.
Ball's representative confirmed he had "passed away peacefully in his sleep at his London home" on Wednesday (22.10.25). No cause of death was given.
The keyboard player's bandmate Marc Almond paid tribute to his friend and "brilliant musical genius" on his website.
Marc wrote: "It is hard to write this, let alone process it, but it is with the greatest sadness that the other half of Soft Cell, the wonderful brilliant musical genius David Ball, died peacefully in his sleep... As many of you are aware, Dave has been ill for a long while and his health had been in slow decline over recent years.
"Yet he always came back with a determined spirit to continue his work in the studio and, although he has been unable to travel abroad, he has still been able to perform with me as Soft Cell on occasions in the UK. His last appearance was at the Rewind festival a few weeks ago, where we headlined to over 20,000 people, after which he was elated and given an enormous boost."
The Tainted Love hitmaker revealed he and Dave had been working on a new album together, which they completed just a few days ago, and the record will be a "fitting" end to their musical partnership.
He added: "It is most heart-breaking, particularly at this time, that Dave was in a great place emotionally, feeling focused and happy with the new album, Danceteria, that we literally had only just completed days ago.
"I listened to the complete album for the first time yesterday. It makes me so sad as this would have been a great uplifting year for him and I can take solace that he heard this finished record and felt it was a great piece of work. Dave's music is better than ever - his tunes, his hooks unmistakably Soft Cell. Yet he always took it to a different level...
"It's fitting in many ways that the next (and now the last) album together is called Danceteria as the theme takes us for a visit back to almost the start of it all, back to New York in the early 80's, the place and time that really shaped us. We always felt we were an honorary American band as well as quintessentially British.
"We have always been self referential to the Soft Cell story and myths and this album in many ways will close that circle for us.
"I wish he could have stayed on to celebrate 50 years in a couple of years time. He will always be loved by fans who loved his music. It's a cliché to say but it lives on and somewhere at any given time around the world someone listens to, plays, dances, and get's pleasure from a Soft Cell song - even if it's just that particular two and half minute epic."
Marc thanks Dave for the decades they spent making music and sending his condolences to his family.
He wrote: "My thoughts are with his family at this time.
"Thank you Dave for being an immense part of my life and for the music you gave me. I wouldn't be where I am without you."
Born in Chester in 1959 to a single mother and named Paul, he was adopted and given the name David Ball. He was then raised in Blackpool alongside an adopted sister, Susan.
Ball enjoyed the showbiz and holiday nature of Blackpool and cited it as an influence on his music career, as well as his father’s engineering background getting him interested in electronics.
After his father died of cancer, Ball inherited some money which he spent on a guitar and after learning the instrument he changed to a synthesiser.
Soft Cell formed in 1979 when Marc and Dave were art students in Leeds.
Describing meeting Almond - who was the first fellow student he spoke to - Dave said: "There was this one guy wandering around with a leopard-skin top, bleached hair and spandex trousers, and I thought, ‘He’s got to be in the art department, he’s not an accountant.' So I asked him, ‘Do you know where I enrol?'"
They released their trailblazing debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret in 1981, paving the way for the likes of other electronic acts such as Pet Shop Boys, Eurythmics and Erasure.
Their second single, Tainted Love, was Britain's best-selling single of 1981 and topped the charts in the UK and 17 other countries around the world.
As well as Soft Cell, Dave was also one half of The Grid alongside Richard Norris, with them best known for 1990s single Swamp Thing, and also worked with artists including Kylie Minogue and the late David Bowie.
