SOFT CELL instrumentalist Dave Ball sadly passed away in his sleep on 22nd October 2025, he was 66.

While he had not been in good health for a number of years, he had completed work on a new SOFT CELL album ‘Danceteria’ to be released in 2026 and performed with band mate Marc Almond at the Rewind Festival in Henley-on-Thames back in August.

Ball began his adventure in music with a Fender Telecaster guitar, twin stylus Stylophone and second hand Akai reel-to-reel tape recorder but when he purchased a MiniKorg 800DV duophonic synthesizer, he never looked back. Enrolling on a Fine Art degree at Leeds Polytechnic, on his first day he asked for directions from a second year student wearing a leopard skin printed shirt and gold lame jeans; that student was Marc Almond and the pair were to make history as SOFT CELL…

The rise of SOFT CELL to have the second biggest UK selling single of 1981 in their cover of the Northern Soul favourite ‘Tainted Love’ is more than well documented and led to an imperial phase where the duo scored no less than five Top4 UK hit singles with ‘Bedsitter’, ‘Say Hello Wave Goodbye’, ‘Torch’ and ‘What’ following on in little more than 12 months.

The debut SOFT CELL album ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’ produced by Mike Thorne was a triumph, but while it was the state-of-the-art NED Synclavier that dominated the aural template with the Roland TR808 providing the rhythmic backbone, it was Ball’s much more basic Roland Synthe-Bass SB100 which provided the record with a very distinct sound.

But Ball and Almond were art school boys and expressed their discomfort with being pop starts and tabloid fodder. Inevitably, the next two albums ‘The Art Of Falling Apart’ and ‘This Last Night In Sodom’ captured that implosion. Although SOFT CELL disbanded in 1984 with Almond going solo and Ball eventually finding solace in the burgeoning house scene, side projects had been part of SOFT CELL’s agenda from the start.

While Almond would have MARC & THE MAMBAS, Ball would produce VICIOUS PINK PHENOMENA and release a solo album ‘In Strict Tempo’ featuring guest vocalists Genesis P-Orridge of THROBBING GRISTLE and Gavin Friday of VIRGIN PRUNES, as well as providing keyboards and “Rhythm Assistance” on CABARET VOLTAIRE’s 1983 album ‘The Crackdown’.

The association with VIRGIN PRUNES would continue with production on 1986’s ‘The Moon Looked Down & Laughed’ but in 1988, he formed THE GRID with Richard Norris after the pair had worked with Genesis P-Orridge’s PSYCHIC TV on the ‘Jack the Tab – Acid Tablets Volume One’ album; THE GRID’s first album ‘Electric Head’ in 1989 featured the chill-out classic ‘Floatation’ and the more disco-oriented ‘A Beat Called Love’ which both in their remixed single forms entered the lower reaches of the charts.

During this time, there was also a reunion with Almond on his 1991 album ‘Tenement Symphony’ to co-write three of the album’s best songs ‘Meet Me In My Dreams’, ‘I’ve Never Seen Your Face’ and ‘My Hand Over My Heart’, planting seeds for an eventual first reunion.

Ball and Norris became in-demand remixes and collaborators with remixes for PET SHOP BOYS, ERASURE and SPARKS as well as productions for Vic Reeves, Kylie Minogue and Billie Ray Martin, the latter’s No6 hit ‘In Your Loving Arms’ being one which Ball later told ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK was one of the 5 tracks he felt the most satisfaction from, along with ‘Baby Doll’, ‘Floatation’, ‘My Hand Over My Heart’ and ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’.

Further remixes would be commissioned for David Bowie, David Sylvian & Robert Fripp, Brian Eno, Neil Arthur, Boy George Sophie B. Hawkins while THE GRID themselves would have their day in the UK Top3 with the cowpunk techno of ‘Swamp Thing’ in 1994.

SOFT CELL officially got back together for the start of the 21st Century and two brand new songs for 2002’s ‘Very Best of’ collection along with the ‘Cruelty Without Beauty’ album were duly delivered. But despite successfully playing festivals in Europe, an American tour did not go so well. There had been plans to do more shows and another record, but Almond had a motorcycle accident in 2004 which left him with very serious injuries. “That was it almost” said Ball to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK in 2018, “we sort of lost touch and didn’t speak for about 15 years…”

While Ball did form a new band NITEWRECKAGE and was among the last people to work with producer Martin Rushent on their 2011 album ‘Take Your Money And Run’, the legacy of SOFT CELL kept looming and a reunion could not be resisted; a show at London’s O2 Arena took place in 2018.

While it was billed as being “One Night, One Final Time”, the chemistry between Ball and Almond was rekindled, tentatively at first with a single ‘Northern Lights’, a ‘Non- Stop Erotic Cabaret’ 40th anniversary tour in 2021 and then an album ‘*Happiness Not Included’ the year after; one of the highlights was ‘Nighthawks’, a track that began life as a Dave Ball instrumental issued as a single with the boxed set of his autobiography ‘Electronic Boy’ and would feature his deep growly voice alongside that of Almond.

But Ball’s health began to take its toll and he was unable to perform at SOFT CELL shows from 2022 until he returned in Summer 2023 for a show at Hampton Court Palace Festival, performing in a motorised wheelchair; he had joked to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK: “Once I’m on stage and I’m locked in, so long as I don’t start wheeling backwards, I’ll be fine!”

As well as SOFT CELL, Ball had been working on new tracks for THE GRID with Richard Norris while ‘Ecce Homo’, an album he produced for Gavin Friday had been released in 2024. ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK had the pleasure of meeting Dave Ball on several occasions over the years and interviewed him three times … he will be missed.

Marc Almond said in his tribute on the SOFT CELL website: “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” and it wouldn’t be unfair to say that without Dave Ball, PET SHOP BOYS probably wouldn’t be here either…

https://www.softcell.co.uk/dave-ball-tribute

Text by Chi Ming Lai
24th October 2025