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David Ball, the non-singing half of the seminal ’80s synth duo Soft Cell, best known for the 1981 new wave classic “Tainted Love,” has died. He was 66 years old. Ball died in his sleep on October 22nd of unknown causes.
“He will always be loved by the Soft Cell fans who love his music, and his music and memory will live on,” Soft Cell singer Marc Almond said in a statement. “Somewhere in the world, at any moment, someone will be enjoying a Soft Cell song. Thank you, Dave, for being such a big part of my life and for the music you gave me. I wouldn’t be where I am today without you.”
“Dave was a big part of my musical life for many years”
When Soft Cell initially broke up in the mid-80s, Ball founded the electronic dance group The Grid together with Richard Norris. In 1994 they had a worldwide hit with “Swamp Thing”.
“Dave has been a huge part of my musical life for many years,” Norris said in a statement. “Being in a duo is different than playing in a band – the bond is very close. That’s how it was with us. We’ve shared so many remarkable, extraordinary, life-affirming experiences together. Thank you, Dave. Thank you for the good times, the endless laughter, your unwavering friendship. Most of all, thank you for the music.”
The art students who formed a band
Soft Cell was created when Ball and Almond met as art students at Leeds Polytechnic in 1977. Before they became friends, Ball was already familiar with Almond’s reputation as a daring performance artist on campus. “His main piece was called ‘Mirror Fucking,'” Ball recalled in an interview with The Guardian in 2017. “He was standing naked in front of a full-length mirror, smearing himself with cat food and fucking himself. It caused quite a stir. He had heard me making beeping noises on a synthesizer and asked me to compose music for his performances. These became proper songs. Everyone in Leeds was into dark stuff, but we wanted to do something more uplifting.”
They played their first gigs at Leeds Warehouse, where Almond worked in the cloakroom. “That’s actually how we got our break,” Ball told the Yorkshire Evening Post in 2021. “We thought we were millionaires! It was like, man, we can actually make money from this!”
Money for the first EP was borrowed from her mother
Ball’s mother loaned them £400 to record their first EP, Mutant Moments, in 1980. That same year they performed at the Futurama Festival at Queens Hall. Backstage, Ball handed BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel a copy of her EP. Peel played them on the radio. Shortly afterwards they signed a contract with the indie label Some Bizarre. “That was basically the beginning,” Ball recalled. “Then it became a very long and arduous journey.”
A pivotal moment in this arduous journey came when Almond heard the DJ at the Warehouse play “Tainted Love,” originally recorded in 1964 by soul singer Gloria Jones. Ball and Almond decided to put their own spin on the classic. “When we started our version it felt twisted and strange,” Ball told the Guardian. “It suited us. We were an odd couple: Marc, this gay guy with makeup, and me, a tall guy who looked like a bouncer.”
Breakthrough thanks to “Tainted Love”
“Tainted Love” was released just weeks before MTV launched in the summer of 1981. The timing couldn’t have been better for Soft Cell, as the fledgling station was desperate for content and played the song non-stop. The song shot to number 1 on the charts worldwide and boosted sales of her debut album “Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret”. The following singles, “Bedsitter,” “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye,” “Torn,” and “What,” were big hits in England but had little impact in America.
Soft Cell went on hiatus in 1984 after only two more albums. Four years later, Ball founded the band The Grid with Norris. The dance group kept Ball busy throughout the ’90s, but a growing nostalgia for the ’80s led him to reconcile with Almond and reunite Soft Cell in 2000.
The duo performed regularly at eighties festivals across Europe and released the album “Cruelty Without Beauty” in 2002 and “Happiness Not Included” in 2022. Their most recent performance was on August 16th at the Rewind Festival in Henley-on-Thames, England, where they performed alongside UB40, ABC, Squeeze and Big Country.
Soft Cell also recently completed a new album. “It’s so sad because 2026 was supposed to be such an uplifting year for him, and I take solace in the fact that he heard the finished record and thought it was a great work,” Almond said in a statement. “Dave’s music is better than ever. His melodies and hooks are still unmistakably Soft Cell, but he’s also always taken it to the next level.”
“He was a wonderfully brilliant musical genius and the two of us have been traveling together for almost 50 years,” he continues. “In the early years we were obnoxious and difficult, two argumentative art students who wanted to do everything our way, even if it was wrong. We were naive and made mistakes, even though we never really saw them as such. It was all just part of the adventure. Dave and I were always a bit like night and day, but maybe that’s why the chemistry between us worked so well.”