Dave Ball, one half of synth pop band Soft Cell, dies at 66

Musician Dave Ball, who made up half the British synth-pop band Soft Cell, is dead at 66.

Along with singer Mark Almond, Soft Cell was best known for the 1981 hit song “Tainted Love.”  Almond announced his musical partner’s death on Facebook Thursday.

“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 on Tuesday night,” Almond said.

The singer said Ball had been ill for a while and seen his health decline in recent years, but gave no cause of death. Classic Pop magazine reported that Ball suffered a broken back after falling down the stairs of his London home in 2022.

Almond credited Ball for managing to fight through ill health to remain an important part of Soft Cell, even though his role on stage was often filled by his friend Philip Larsen.

“It is most heartbreaking, 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,” Almond wrote.

Almond mourned the end of a collaboration that spanned 50 years and included successes and failures. He described himself and Ball as pioneers who weren’t afraid to fail.

“We were very obnoxious and difficult in the early days, two belligerent art students wanting to do things our way even if it was the wrong way,” he recalled.

He thinks the duo’s final album is a fitting end for what they achieved together.

“The theme takes us for a visit back to almost the start of it all, back to New York in the early ’80s, the place and time that really shaped us,” he said.

Soft Cell recorded the album “Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret” in New York, which included their hit single “Tainted Love.” The synthesizer-fueled remake of the 1964 Gloria Jones tune of the same name, which also included a portion of the Supremes’ 1964 hit “Where Did Our Love Go,” cracked the Billboard Top 10 in January 1982 and spent 43 weeks on the pop charts.

Ball told Mojo magazine in 2001 that he never expected to record a hit song.

“We were just two weird guys from Leeds Poly art school — being in the charts was never the plan,” he said.