“’Danceteria’ is a love letter to New York in the early 80s. To celebrate this period is a fitting farewell to Dave Ball”: Marc Almond
When the sad news broke that Dave Ball had passed away, those who had grown up with the sounds of Synth Britannia were in shock. As one half of SOFT CELL with Marc Almond, Ball was central to their brilliant 1981 debut album ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’ with his Roland Synthe-Bass SB100 offsetting with a state-of-the-art NED Synclavier to give that record with a very distinct sound.
Following SOFT CELL reuniting for a second time in 2018, a new album ‘*Happiness Not Included’ was released in 2022. While Dave Ball had a number of health issues, work continued on a follow-up and 2 days before his passing, work was completed on ‘Danceteria’, SOFT CELL’s sixth and final studio album. A bittersweet, neon-drenched love letter to New York where the duo completed ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’, ‘Danceteria’ is conceived as a day-in-the-life of Manhattan, bouncing from hedonistic nightfall to bleary-eyed morning light.
Opening with the instrumental ‘Elusive’, Ball’s booming bass and glitzy arpeggios lock horns with 808 snares and a sleazy sax. It perfectly evokes images of yellow cabs at nightfall in a pre-gentrified Manhattan. The tempo shifts up a gear for the euphoric ‘Danceteria’ title track. It is a rousing, VILLAGE PEOPLE-inspired disco stampede given a characteristically cynical edge courtesy of a Marc Almond rap and a penetrating Dave Ball lead synth.
Anchored by a solid electronic backing, ‘The Space Inside’ is superb and weaves filmic European melodies with gothic choirs to easily mark it as an album highlight. Meanwhile ‘Times Square’ leans heavily into nocturnal ERASURE territory in a triplet-driven cousin to ‘Last Chance’ from their 2002 comeback ‘Cruelty Without Beauty’. The atmosphere shifts with the excellent ‘Two Of A Kind’ boasting an enticing rhythmic snap; as it gets threateningly discordant in places, the song captures that art-school friction which always separated SOFT CELL from their Synth Britannia contemporaries.
The mood subsides for ‘The Rainbow Room’, a deeply heartfelt ballad that finds Almond reminiscing and it provides some emotional breathing space before the Schaffel stomp of ‘In Heaven (When I Dance With You)’ throws in a fistful of glitter and grit. ‘Decadence Is Hard Work’ shifts the thrust back onto the dancefloor though the chorus and middle-eight let it down slightly while ‘Crackland’ refuses to hide its sinister subject matter, utilising stabs of organ and flute to do battle behind Almond’s seedy narrative.
‘What Is Your Morality?’ acts as a rhetorical, vocoder-assisted question; the heavily processed vocals add a wonderfully icy Moroder-esque touch to a deeply hypnotic synth groove but ‘Losing Yourself’ sparkles within an avant-Motorik cocoon, slowly developing its dark atmospheric backdrop. Not a cover of THE VELVET UDERGROUND song voiced by Mo Tucker, ‘After Hours’ capture that weary comedown as nocturnal melodic sweeps and gentle rings soundtrack the rising sun over the East River.
Photo by Mike Owen
Aimed squarely at the dancefloor, ‘Wave To America’ is driven by an uplifting, choir-assisted chorus and a playful synth riff to celebrate the positives of the USA amidst the horrors of the Reagan era; it’s a sentiment that today can easily be mapped onto Trump and MAGA. An ode to the outsiders who found solace in SOFT CELL, a cover of the WAS (NOT WAS) favourite ‘Out Come The Freaks’ closes; featuring the vocals of Nona Hendryx with both Ball and Almond, a punchy electronic bass acts drives this funky update but as a fitting farewell, it all ends with just a lone Dave Ball’s growl declaring “woodwork squeaks and out come the freaks…”
Without Dave Ball, there can be no more SOFT CELL but despite the sadness, ‘Danceteria’ is on the whole is a euphoric uplifting experience. As a curtain call to a 47-year partnership, it is the sound of two Leeds Polytechnic art school students coming full circle and leaving the dancefloor for the final time.
The late Dave 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…
Managed by Stevo Pearce who had included them on his ‘Some Bizzare Album’ released at the start of 1981, he secured a deal for SOFT CELL with Phonogram Records; one of the first recordings for the label was ‘Memorabilia’ which was produced by Daniel Miller and would go on to become a cult club favourite. The rise of SOFT CELL to have the second biggest UK selling single of 1981 with a cover of the Northern Soul favourite ‘Tainted Love’ is more than well documented and led to an imperial phase with ‘Bedsitter’, ‘Say Hello Wave Goodbye’, ‘Torch’ and ‘What’ all becoming UK Top4 singles 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 stars and tabloid fodder. Inevitably, the next two albums ‘The Art Of Falling Apart’ and ‘This Last Night In Sodom’ captured that implosion while Ball recorded a solo album ‘In Strict Tempo’ in between. 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.
Photo by Roger Kamp
After various productions, guest appearances and aborted projects, Ball formed THE GRID with Richard Norris in 1988. While he also collaborated with Genesis P-Orridge for the ‘DECODER’ soundtrack, there was a reunion with Almond on his 1991 album ‘Tenement Symphony’ to co-write three of the album’s best songs ‘Meet Me In My Dream’, ‘I’ve Never Seen Your Face’ and ‘My Hand Over My Heart’, planting seeds for an eventual first reunion.
THE GRID became in-demand remixers and collaborators with remixes for PET SHOP BOYS, ERASURE and SPARKS as well as productions for Vic Reeves, Kylie Minogue and Billie Ray Martin. Further remixes would be commissioned for David Bowie, David Sylvian & Robert Fripp, Brian Eno, Neil Arthur, Boy George and Sophie B Hawkins while THE GRID themselves would have their day in the UK Top3 with ‘Swamp Thing’ in 1994.
Photo by Roger Kamp
SOFT CELL officially got back together for 2002’s ‘Cruelty Without Beauty’ album 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.
The pair lost touch and didn’t speak for about 15 years… but 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 and if that announcement was not enough of a surprise, then a new single ‘Northern Lights’ with the B-side ‘Guilty (Cos I Say You Are’ was the cherry on top. The A-side saw Almond and Ball reminisce about their days at the Wigan Casino and recaptured the essence of their unique brand of electronic pop.
While the O2 show was billed as being “One Night, One Final Time”, the chemistry between Ball and Almond was rekindled, leading to further shows and an album ‘*Happiness Not Included’ as well as a bonus collection of outtakes and covers ‘*Happiness Now Completed’.
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, 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!”
With the final SOFT CELL album ‘Danceteria’ recorded before his death in October 2025 and set to be released via Republic of Music on 25th September 2026, the legacy of Dave Ball continues with a reissue of ‘In Strict Tempo’ also on the cards.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK looks back at 25 of his works with a restriction of one track per “album project”; there are some omissions but the aim of this Beginner’s Guide is to not make the article too SOFT CELL heavy and show the artistic breadth of the Electronic Boy that was Dave Ball.
SOFT CELL Frustration (1980)
Dave Ball borrowed money from his mother to fund the first SOFT CELL EP ‘Mutant Moments’. Although it was to become a ‘Non Stop Erotic Cabaret’ highlight, the original version of ‘Frustration’ was recorded on 2 track and akin to the unsettling demeanour of THROBBING GRISTLE. The lyrics were mostly written by Ball about his own father and at the end, he took a creepy vocal turn to announce “I’M AN ORDINARY BLOKE”!
SOFT CELL’s fine debut album was finished and mixed in the more liberal setting of New York. It captured the edginess of minimal synth arrangements while married to an actual tune, as opposed to the monotone dirges of their more unorthodox contemporaries. With a magnificent arrangement by Ball that allowed Almond to indulge in his Scott Walker aspirations, ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’ is possibly SOFT CELL’s crowning achievement.
Josephine Warden and Brian Moss as VICIOUS PINK PHENOMENA were backing singers for SOFT CELL and featured prominently on ‘Non Stop Erotic Cabaret’. Ball produced their metronomic debut single ‘My Private Tokyo’ which played with many of the Far Eastern lyrical clichés of the time. The duo would shorten their name and go on to release their best single ‘Cccan’t You See’ produced by Tony Mansfield of NEW MUZIK in 1984.
Available on the VICIOUS PINK album ‘West View’ via Minimal Wave
A favourite SOFT CELL track of Dave Ball, ‘Baby Doll’ was a grim observation in the life of a stripper. With gothic choir samples and foreboding rhythms, the grittier art school aesthetic was coming into play after a period of pop stardom that did not suit Ball and particularly Almond. There was no option but for the duo to hit self-destruct as they fought with producer Mike Thorne who was now being viewed as a controller and spy for Phonogram.
With keyboards and rhythm assistance by Dave Ball, this signature CABARET VOLTAIRE track came from ‘The Crackdown’, Stephen Mallinder and Richard H Kirk’s first full-length album since the departure of Chris Watson. Issued through Some Bizzare and Virgin, it was produced by the duo and Flood where the Cabs’ earlier experimental sound was applied to accessible electronic club templates, combining funk with menace.
Available on the CABARET VOLTAIRE album ‘The Crackdown’ via Mute Artists
DAVE BALL featuring GAVIN FRIDAY Strict Tempo (1983)
Described by the man himself as “ill-conceived”, Dave Ball’s only solo album ‘In Strict Tempo’ featured Genesis P Orridge of THROBBING GRISTLE as well as his own while Gary Barnacle played sax and Virginia Astley played flute. But the album’s snarling percussive standout was the “title song” featuring Gavin Friday from VIRGIN PRUNES. Ball would go on to produce the final VIRGIN PRUNES album ‘The Moon Looked Down & Laughed’.
Originally on the DAVE BALL album ‘In Strict Tempo’ via Some Bizzare, currently unavailable
If ‘The Art Of Falling Apart’ was SOFT CELL’s difficult second long player, ‘This Last Night In Sodom’ was an even more challenging proposition. Despite having bought a PPG Wave 2.2, Ball applied a lot more Hammond B3 organ to add a more raucous rock edge to the SOFT CELL sound, particularly on the Jack Hammer cover ‘Down In The Subway’ and the self-explanatory ‘Mr Self Destruct’ which highlighted Marc Almond’s state of mind at the time.
‘Have A Nice Day’ was a curio in the industrial pop vein that saw Dave Ball work with his then-wife Gini on vocals repeating the title. The metallic electronic backdrop was offset by Andy Astle on guitar as the bassline chugged and claustrophobic voice samples lingered. Released on Arcadia Records who also issued the PSYCHIC TV cassette ‘Mouth Of The Night’ in 1985, this single was to be a one-off for OTHER PEOPLE.
Originally released as the single OTHER PEOPLE ‘Have A Nice Day’ via Arcadia Records, currently unavailable
Subtitled the “Ravemaster Mixes”, ‘Beyond Thee Infinite Beat’ was a remix companion piece to the PSYCHIC TV album ‘Towards Thee Infinite Beat’ which saw Genesis P-Orridge explicitly explore the squelchy minimalism of acid house with “A Supply Of Two Tablets Of Acid” post-THROBBING GRISTLE. Dave Ball’s incessant remix of ‘Money For E…’ made the bassline beefier while adding icier synth lines for full spacey effect.
“I was pleased when it was recognised as an Ibiza chill out classic” said Dave Ball said to ELECTICITYCLUB.CO.UK of ‘Floatation’ in 2016. The idea was for a slower record to play on a beach in the open air like the closing theme of a film. Taking cues from John Barry, while the original album mix sounded KRAFTWERK, the more familiar Andrew Weatherall remix took out the rigidity and added vocals from Sasha for some simmering relaxation.
While Marc Almond’s ‘Tenement Symphony’ album is best remembered for Trevor Horn produced covers ‘Jacky’ and ‘The Days Of Pearly Spencer’, it also hosted his first creative reunion with Dave Ball. Both co-writing with Richard Norris, ‘Meet Me In My Dream’ was a classic SOFT CELL song in all but name, complete with soprano sax solo, it was a reminder of the undeniable magic that Ball and Almond together possessed.
‘DJ Culture’ was a MASSIVE ATTACK influenced single by PET SHOP BOYS in a statement as a statement on the first Gulf War reflecting on how US George HW Bush’s speeches utilised Winston Churchill’s wartime rhetoric in a manner similar to DJs sampling. . For a separately released remix by THE GRID, Ball and Norris added more Latin style percussion to the BROTHERS IN RHYTHM produced track while keeping the song itself intact.
Originally released on the PET SHOP BOYS single ‘DJ Culturemix’ via Parlophone, currently unavailable
Comedian Vic Reeves had a No1 single with a cover of ‘Dizzy’ with THE WONDER STUFF while the parent album ‘I Will Cure You’ also included a synthy version of DEEP PURPLE’s ‘Black Night’ produced by Philip Oakey. To close it, Dave Ball and Richard Norris were brought in produce a raved-up version of the FA Cup Final hymn and funeral standard ‘Abide With Me’. The joke was lost on the church who tried to get the BBC to ban it.
Available on the VIC REEVES album ‘I Will Cure You’ via Island Records
The third single from the ERASURE album ‘Chorus’ saw a separate remix of ‘Am I Right?’ by THE GRID that highlighted Dave Ball and Richard Norris’ status as in-demand remixers. As with PET SHOP BOYS ‘DJ Culturemix’, the song remained intact while the Vince Clarke’s understated analogue backing was made much beatier and widescreen as more prominent bass sequences and synth pads were included.
Available on the deluxe ERASURE album ‘Always’ via Mute Records/BMG
THE GRID’s biggest UK hit ‘Swamp Thing’ mixed banjo and old samples for a thumping slice of cowpunk techno. The five stringed instrument was played by Roger Dinsdale who Ball had spotted performing at an Irish pub in Marylebone. He laid down his own riffs over a bassline and drumbeat. Equal parts joyous and annoying, the novelty caught on in Europe with ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ by Swedish act REDNEX following not long after.
Available on THE GRID album ‘Evolver’ via Deconstruction
THE GRID’s first production to get in the UK Top 10 and into the US Billboard 100 in the US, the energetic ‘Your Loving Arms’ was written by German dance diva Billie Ray Martin with British DJ David Harrow after her band ELECTRIBE 101 split. The blissfully dramatic number was a slow burner and did not find major mainstream success until 1995; “I guess it was the song that made all the difference for me and does to this day” Billie Ray Martin said, “I am grateful.”
SPARKS When Do I Get To Sing My Way – THE GRID Instrumental Radio Edit (1994)
Like a phoenix from the flames, SPARKS returned for yet another run of mainstream success with ‘When Do I Get To Sing My Way’ hitting the No7 spot in the German singles chart. The single came in a plethora of remixes including one by Vince Clarke. But the best was THE GRID’s instrumental radio edit which pushed the symphonic synth lines to the fore. A vocal version came out to head a 1995 UK reissue but that didn’t work as well.
Originally released on the SPARKS single ‘When Do I Get To Sing My Way’ via Logic Records, vocal version available on the expanded edition album ‘Gratuitous Sex & Senseless Violins’
THE GRID had gone into hiatus and Ball found a new studio partner in Ingo Vauk. While Kylie Minogue had been going through her “indie” phase working with Nick Cave and MANIC STREET PREACHERS, she found room to work with Ball and Vaux on three tracks for her ‘Impossible Princess’ album. The electronica-based ‘Breathe’ was the best known, coming in a slightly pacier radio edit over the more slow-mo album version.
“Would you like to taste a little pain?” asked Marc Almond on ‘Le Grand Guignol’, one of the highlights from SOFT CELL’s comeback album ‘Cruelty Without Beauty’. Using a form of graphic sensationalist horror originating from a noted theatre in Paris as a cynical life metaphor, the bass throb and saxy timpanic drama that saw Ball growl alongside a cynical vocal from Almond and eerie voice samples en Français.
Comprising of Celine Hispiche on vocals, programmer Rick Mulhall, drummer Terry Neale and Ball, NITEWRECKAGE was one of the last projects that the late producer Martin Rushent worked on; “Martin was a lovely man and a total genius in the studio” said Ball in 2016. Capturing a blend of leftfield synth and gothic rock, ‘Solarcoaster’ was firmly rooted in SOFT CELL with Hispiche providing a detached Eurocentric twist.
Originally on the NITEWRECKAGE album ‘Take Your Money & Run’ via Alaska Sounds, available as the single ‘Solarcoaster’
Dave Ball and Jon Savage (not the journalist!) bonded over Minimoogs, Prophets 5s and a Roland Fantom X6 to compose dark ambient pieces for a one hour work inspired by organisms using sunlight to synthesise nutrients from CO2 and water, juxtaposed with the spectre of global warming and war. The haunting ‘Dead Neon’ embraced harp and oboe textures alongside deep drones to exude an avant classical tone.
Available on the DAVE BALL & JON SAVAGE album ‘Photosynthesis’ via Cold Spring
Originally a Dave Ball instrumental issued as a single that came with the boxed set of his autobiography ‘Electronic Boy’, the tense industrialised pulse of ‘Nighthawks’ recalled the sweaty alternative club overtures of one-time Some Bizzare stable mates CABARET VOLTAIRE. Listeners were treated to the deep growly voice of Mr Ball himself repeating the words “Electronic Boy” and “Nighthawks in a lonely city, Nighthawks in a lonely place”.
Originally released on the DAVE BALL album ‘1979 – 2019’ via Big Frock, SOFT CELL version available on the album ‘*Happiness Not Included’ via BMG
Noted for his guitar Frippertronics with Brian Eno, David Bowie and David Sylvian, Robert Fripp played on THE GRID’s 1992 album ‘456’. Norris and Ball rediscovered unreleased tapes from these sessions and were inspired to add new electronic backing and effects to create an album ‘Leviathan’ named after the mythological sea creature referenced in The Bible. The title track was a glorious nautical ambient work to savour.
Available on THE GRID / FRIPP album ‘Leviathan’ via Discipline Global Mobile / Panegyric
In a union of “The Blackpool Electro Mafia” comprising Dave Ball and Chris Lowe who attended the same school while never meeting, as well as featuring the voices of both Almond and Tennant, ‘Purple Zone’ was turned into rousing uplifting Europop number with very anthemic reminiscences of PET SHOP BOYS. But without the groundwork laid by SOFT CELL, PET SHOP BOYS may not have had an open door to walk through.
Available on the SOFT CELL & PET SHOP BOYS single ‘Purple Zone’ via BMG
With a long gestation period, the ‘Ecce Homo’ album began in earnest in 2016 after a collaboration between Gavin Friday and Ball on a version of SUICIDE’s ‘Ghost Rider’ which SOFT CELL had also covered. Combining elements of synth with post-punk, the title song itself was a wonderfully deathly slice of disco gothique that sounded like Ian McCulloch meeting SOFT CELL at Berghain given an extra chill by an opera soprano sample!
Available on the GAVIN FRIDAY album ‘Ecce Homo’ via BMG
50 years from KRAFTWERK appearing on the BBC’s ‘Tomorrow’s World’ to perform ‘Autobahn’ and demonstrate the future of music, as Ralf Hütter remarked at the start of the 21st Century, “electro is everywhere” and can now be made on your mobile phone!
And while the KRAFTWERK brand continues to be fronted by the 79 year old Hütter with an extensive UK tour pencilled in next year, 2025 saw the sad passing of Synth Britannia heroes Dave Ball and Stephen Luscombe, while there was also the loss of COVENANT associate Andreas Catjar-Danielsson, NITZER EBB frontman Douglas J McCarthy and Gary Numan’s brother / former live band member John Webb. Outside of the genre, cult film director David Lynch, BLONDIE drummer Clem Burke, veteran diva Marianne Faithfull, The Prince Of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne and Head Beach Boy Brian Wilson were among those who left this mortal coil.
Among the new talent making a good impression were Spike, Shears and Hannah Hu who is currently working on her first album with Dean Honer of I MONSTER. Having already released a couple of albums, on the ascendancy was self-styled Californian “retro electro artist”Sophie Grey who was joined by Trevor Horn during her live cover of ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ while supporting Sting at the London Forum.
On the gentler side of electronics, Patricia Wolf and Loula Yorke came up with their fabulous respective instrumental offerings ‘Hrafnamynd’ and ‘Time Is A Succession Of Such Shapes’. There was also the return of LADYTRON as well as Alison Goldfrapp, Claudia Brücken and Kim Wilde. Going back to glitzy electropop on her new record ‘Mayhem’, Lady Gaga did an impression of Taylor Swift doing YAZOO on one of its highlights ‘How Bad Do U Want Me?’; meanwhile Taylor herself appeared to have turned into Los Angeles trio CANNONS on ‘The Fate Of Ophelia’, the synthy opening song of her 12th album ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’.
Photo by Oliver Blair
Swedish producer Johan Agebjörn proved to have one of the most prolific years in his music career with not only collaborations with R.MISSING on ‘Fakesnow’ and NINA on ‘Hush Hush Baby’ but also a new SALLY SHAPIRO album ‘Ready To Live A Lie’ and a solo long player ‘Southern Forest’; all this while holding down his day job as a psychotherapist! Another releasing two albums in 2025 was Paul Statham although one was a collection of archive recordings for what could have been the intended 1982 debut album by B-MOVIE entitled ‘Lost Treasures’; the other was a second record from his dark country project THE DARK FLOWERS featuring Jim Kerr of SIMPLE MINDS whose most recent single ‘Your Name In Lights’ had been co-written by Statham.
Impressively, SPARKS got ‘MAD!’ and then ‘MADDER!’ while undertaking a huge world tour with Ron Mael still tap dancing at 80 years of age during the drum solo of ‘No1 Song In Heaven’ and Russell Mael able to hit many of those high notes at 77. As ERASURE made a tentative return with a series of special UK fan club shows to celebrate their 40th anniversary, Andy Bell toured his solo album ‘Ten Crowns’ with KNIGHT$ not doing himself any harm being the opening act on the German leg ahead of a new album ‘Supernatural Lover’ out in early 2026.
After a few years of recorded absence, former TANGERINE DREAM members released long awaited albums with Peter Baumann from the classic line-up issuing the esoteric ‘Nightfall’ while Jerome Froese, son of co-founder Edgar, came up with the guitartronica of ‘Sunsets In Stereo’. Playing with the atonal atmospheres of early TANGERINE DREAM in places, the dark cerebral concept of ‘The Ray Bradbury Chronicles’ by Levente was worthy of investigation.
With their keyboard player Christian Berg now something of a modern day Rick Wakeman, KITE established themselves as a major world force with a spectacular show on ice at Stockholm’s Avicii Arena which saw special guest Nina Persson of THE CARDIGANS skating with the Helsinki Rockettes while singing their mighty collaboration ‘Heartless Places’.
Tom Shear released one of his most impressive and on-point albums as ASSEMBLAGE 23 in ‘Null’ while UNIFY SEPARATE didn’t mince their words on their ‘Heavy Meta’ EP. While Tobias Bernstrup kept the dark Italo flame alive with ‘Shadow Dancer’, Berlin continued to remain a force in underground club culture with two of its leading exponents Franz Scala and Kalipo presenting well-received long players that worked on the home hi-fi as well as on dancefloors. On the more poptronica front, Eddie Bengtsson finally stopped trying to “Numanise” his sound and came up with ‘Inget Motstånd’, a record in the more classic PAGE vein.
While synthwave appeared to be dead (as the controversial blog Iron Skullet declared in 2019), the influx of generic darkwave was a major blight on electronic music in 2025. The major label supported Mareux and his second album ‘Nonstop Romance’ had any potential painfully ruined by overused deliberate distortion to make it sound like it was recorded down a drainpipe.
Meanwhile PORCELAIN DANCER seemed to be the Rob Newman parody of Robert Smith as seen on ‘The Mary Whitehouse Experience’ resurrected only several octaves lower; his live performance provoked unintentional laughter from those who arrived early to see KORINE in London!
DEPECHE MODE released 4 songs that were originally deemed not good enough to put on their 2023 album ‘Memento Bori’ to append the live album accompanying their Mexico City concert film ‘M’. But 2025 was notable for a number of figures in the British DM fan community who were coming out with particularly repugnant far right views, seemingly oblivious to the decades of lyrical messages from the two remaining mixed race band members!
But there was hope in the darker side of synth with A THOUSAND MAD THINGS; with his haunted demeanour while navigating young manhood as a tortured outsider, William Barradale’s doomed romantic delivery reminiscent of Billy MacKenzie and Trevor Herion made him undoubtedly the most promising UK act since MIRRORS; his debut 5 song EP ‘Cry & Dance’ was one of 2025’s best bodies of work. This more than made up for ‘Dance Called Memory’, the extremely dull fourth album from NATION OF LANGUAGE which was anything but memorable…
After looking back at 1981, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK were pleased to be return to the variously compiled podcast ‘Back To NOW’ to discuss the ‘NOW 1982 Yearbook’ with genial host Iain McDermott and Ian Wade, author of ‘1984: The Year Pop Went Queer’. While general music and culture podcasts such as ‘Back To NOW’, ‘Word In Your Ear’, ‘The Rest Is Entertainment’, ‘The Rockonteurs’, ‘SoundPower’ and Miranda Sawyer’s new offering ‘Talk 90s To Me’ were highly engaging listens, specific broadcasts focussed on synth and electronic music were usually weak, suffering from poor hosting and ham-fisted background research. But when a professional presenter was involved, synth-oriented chats could be enlightening as the appearance of John Foxx on ‘The Adam Buxton Podcast’ proved, despite the annoying jingles that accompanied it.
Featuring commentary from PET SHOP BOYS’ Neil Tennant, the BBC’s retrospective look at the collapse of EMI called ‘Music Money & Mayhem’ showed once again that when those who know nothing about music get involved in the music business, it will end in tears. Looking at the story of the history of Beggars Banquet label in its first series and featuring Gary Numan in its opening episode, ‘States Of Independence’ documented how creative enthusiasm from the heart can actually thrive.
So where are the audiences for live electronic music these days? Certainly, if the full houses for Marie Davidson, Geneva Jacuzzi, Loscil and KITE in London’s club-sized venues were anything to go by, the crowds are out there. This was not the case for some other acts on the circuit at new, cult and one-hit wonder level who were struggling to get above half capacity or had downsized considerably since their perceived highest profile. However, new music night Release Me managed to get very good attendances for their evenings in 2025 with the premise that all acts must perform previously unreleased material; this focus on their events being about the music with announced requests to not talk during sets was a fresh and very welcome approach.
Photo by Tom Casey
Elsewhere, the retro business did prosper with reunions, exhibitions, summer hits shows, classic album tours, deluxe reissues of albums that were never that good in the first place and notable records re-released in yet another expanded set for the 5th or 6th time! There were those trying to exploit the fading nostalgia of those heady romantic times, writing memoirs that left out so many important facts omitted that there were grounds for inclusion in the “fiction” section.
Then there were others releasing overlong collections with an average track length of between 6-8 minutes that no-one asked for nor desired… filtering and editing is such an important aspect to producing music so there was no excuse for these veterans! Some even sent out unmastered music files to review outlets, blissfully unaware that the sound quality might actually be mentioned, only to get stupidly angry about it when highlighted due to their own numbskull promotional abilities; it’s a funny old entitled world…
The positive and negative of modern day music consumption is growth CAN happen organically in its own internet powered niche. But with the fragmentation of promotion with social media actually being a choice despite wider protestations, even the AXS newsletter listing the acts soon to be playing the 20,000 capacity O2 arena in London provoked cries of “WHO?”; but that is how it is now and it needs to be accepted. Why should a Boomer or Gen X-er know about the bright young thing headlining Glastonbury?
However, you CAN create your own musical universe today, not listen to radio, create your own playlists and exclude as appropriate. After all, as Nick Rhodes from DURAN DURAN once remarked: “Good taste is exclusive” – nobody should have to like what you like and neither should what somebody else likes appeal to you… niche interests are fine.
There is no doubt fandom has become more tribal and is now akin to away game support for football teams. But as a result, it has therefore got more toxic, with some fans getting ridiculously angry on socials about old less-than-positive reviews that David Hepworth, Mark Ellen, Ian Cranna, Dave Rimmer, Tom Hibbert or Neil Tennant might have written for Smash Hits 43 YEARS AGO!! “Bet he regrets that…” someone will quip smugly but the reality is, if there is a review that a writer will regret, from the experience of ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK, it will usually be the one that is too gushing with praise!
The gist of Smash Hits during its imperial phase that coincided with Neil Tennant’s tenure as Assistant Editor was it was a magazine which treated “pop” as the most “important” thing in the world while simultaneously highlighting how “ridiculous” it was too, with references to “the dumper”, “summer colds” and the “tongue sarnie”… often dismissed as a “teen mag”, a good number of teenagers could see through the up-itself pretentions of the NME so relished the more amusing and knowing “scribblings” of the Smash Hits team!
The wider public forgets that it might likely have the benefit of 4 decades of hindsight as well as weekly if not daily plays of a record in the first few years of its possession. While it has always been associated with “free speech”, “opinion” or “freedom of expression”, one of the problems with social media is the narcissistic self-seeking of validation as part of the main character syndrome that afflicts many in this modern world…
U2 once asked “how long must we sing this song?”; so to end a divisive year where evil men with racist views have been casually normalised, the message outlined in 1981 by a trio of philosophers from South Yorkshire must continue to be repeated loud and clear: WE DON’T NEED THIS FASCIST GROOVE THANG! #FuckFarage #FuckReformUK #FuckTommyRobinson #FuckFlagshaggers #FuckTrump
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 stars 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 Dream’, ‘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 remixers 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…
Established on 15th March 2010, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK celebrates 15 years online.
Aiming to feature the best in new and classic electronic pop music, during that time it has conducted over 550 interviews from fledgling independent acts and veteran cult artists to established international stars.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK prides itself in asking interesting questions that are a bit different and seeded by knowledge of the subject. As a result, these interviews have been appreciated by those music enthusiasts who know their tape recorders from their drum machines.
As for the interviewees, the vast majority have been a joy to work with and luckily, boring or difficult interviews have been rare. However, the most disappointing situations arise when someone agrees to an interview and continues communications for several weeks but doesn’t come clean to say they are not actually interested in participating… it is the interviewing equivalent of being ghosted 😆
Photo by Rob Harris
While sending questions via email for an artist to answer in their own time is the modern way of conducting an interview and is convenient with artists who have day jobs, don’t speak English as a first language or are in a different time zone, it is not particularly interactive and lacks a conversational flow. A true interview is a two way live conversation conducted face-to-face, by phone or a conferencing platform where opinions, thoughts and recollections can be obtained through reactive questioning.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK lists its 25 favourite interviews from over the years. Reading like a ‘Who’s Who?’ of electronic pop, all the interviews were conducted in-person or via a live call, except those with Alan Wilder, Karl Bartos and Rob Dean which were done by email.
PAUL HUMPHREYS (2010)
This Paul Humphreys interview put ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK on the map. At his studio complex in London, he chatted about the past, present and future of OMD, hinting at the contents of the upcoming album ‘History Of Modern’. The interview proved popular and was later quoted by The Guardian in a feature about OMD. This was the first of five interviews, the most recent of which was for OMD’s 40th Anniversary in 2019.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK bumped into Sarah Blackwood after a HEAVEN 17 concert in Cologne and so began a long lasting friendship. Conducted at a café in St Pancras, this interview captured an interesting interregnum with our heroine between the end of CLIENT and the start of the DUBSTAR reunion. This was to be the first of two Sarah solo chats while she would be interviewed with Chris Wilkie twice as DUBSTAR.
Conducted in London to coincide with the reissue of her debut solo album ‘Love: And A Million Other Things’, Claudia Brücken talked about her time in PROPAGANDA, ACT and ONETWO while she also talked about plans for a compilation called ‘ComBined’ collecting highlights from throughout her career. Her most recent ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK interview was together with Susanne Freytag as xPROPAGANDA.
The majority of interviews are cordial affairs but this one with Andy McCluskey following the release of OMD’s comeback album ‘History Of Modern’ was a bit ‘Frost/Nixon’. ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK echoed some of the fan disappointments about the record and to his credit, he was unrepentant and batted away criticisms with aplomb. A less confrontational interview followed in 2013 for ‘English Electric’.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK were surprised when a request to interview Stephen Morris was accepted, especially as NEW ORDER had seemingly disbanded. The conversion had The Human Drum Machine at his best with stories about JOY DIVISION as well. But why was this interview taking place, why was he doing a fashion shoot for ‘Arena Homme+’? It was all subtle profile rebuilding as NEW ORDER was relaunched months later!
With many discussion points covered, a thoroughly entertaining hour was spent chatting to Neil Arthur in his studio during a break from rehearsals for the first BLANCMANGE live shows since 1986 in support of a new album ‘Blanc Burn’. The artist who has been interviewed the most times by ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK, he has since been featured a further nine times including with his side projects FADER and NEAR FUTURE.
The intelligent aesthetics of MIRRORS made them ideal for ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s first interview using the Vintage Synth Trumps format. Conducted in the dressing room of Cologne’s Gebaude9 prior to the first show of their headlining German tour, James New and Ally Young chatted about the synths used on their ’Lights & Offerings’ album. But tension was evident between the pair and it ultimately led to the sad end of the band.
While often reluctant to talk about DEPECHE MODE, when Alan Wilder auctioned off a large collection of his studio equipment, vinyl and memorabilia, he was ready to talk about the band he left in 1995 again as well his own musical venture RECOIL. For the 25th Anniversary of the release of the ‘101’ live album and documentary film in 2014 , ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK was the only platform he granted an interview to.
One of the nicest guys in the music business, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK had the pleasure of chatting to Howard Jones about his then-upcoming tour performing his first two albums ‘Human’s Lib’ and ‘Dream Into Action’. Focussing on the period between 1983 to 85 when he became a household name and was many people’s entry point into the world of synthpop, the interview included lots of analogue and digital synth talk.
A short conversation conducted remotely, Karl Bartos talked about his new album ‘Off The Record’ and recalled his collaborations with Andy McCluskey, Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr. When he performed at Cologne’s Live Music Hall on the same night that KRAFTWERK received a Lifetime Achievement Grammyin January 2014, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK were granted an audience with the man himself.
The album ‘the minutes’ saw the return of Alison Moyet to electronica and this inevitably led to reminiscences about YAZOO in this delightful and sweary interview conducted face-to-face in Islington. She was frank and open about all aspects of her career, the misconception of her being a “jazz singer” and which two songs from the YAZOO portfolio she particularly hated! Can you guess without look at the transcript which ones they are?
VILE ELECTRODES remain the act that ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has been proudest of featuring. Invited to support OMD on the German leg of their ‘English Electric’ tour following Andy McCluskey spotting the band while perusing ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK, this informative interview was conducted in Anais Neon and Martin Swan’s synth-filled apartment and completed online to update it after the news was announced.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK were literally given a few days notice that it was to interview Gary Numan at his home in Los Angeles by phone. Coinciding with the release of the ‘Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind)’ album which had taken 7 years to complete, he was in buoyant mood after an artistic rejuvenation. Refreshingly honest, he admitted his original plan to make all the songs on ‘Splinter’ one-dimensional was “a sh*t idea”!
One of the fun things about the Vintage Synth Trumps series of interviews is that there is a degree of jeopardy for both interviewer and artist. Taking time to gain acclaim and recognition, the first Rodney Cromwell album ‘Age Of Anxiety’ was perfect for mainman Adam Cresswell to talk about his love of synths and DIY recording as well as the influence of NEW ORDER and SECTION 25 on his music over a fish supper in London’s Soho.
It was known that Richard Barbieri is often not that keen on talking about JAPAN and ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK assumed all the chat over the phone would be about his new album ‘Planets + Persona’. But unprompted, he chatted about his MicroMoog which was used on a number of JAPAN albums. But the crowning glory of the interview was how he did the metallic intro of ‘Ghosts’ using his Roland System 700 Lab Series.
While not as well-known as Giorgio Moroder or Conny Plank, producer Zeus B Held contacted ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK after it did a Beginner’s Guide feature on his career portfolio. A coffee meeting was arranged at Foyles bookshop in London and morphed into a full interview which saw the talkative German reflect back on working with GINA X PERFORMANCE, FASHION and DEAD OR ALIVE as well as John Foxx and Gary Numan.
When in Düsseldorf… despite the confrontational aspects of DAF, their drummer and sequencer programmer Robert Görl is something of a thoughtful and spiritual soul. This face-to-face interview was conducted before a performance of his ‘Glücksritter’ live only project and took in DAF, his wonderful solo debut long player ‘Night Full Of Tension’, working with Annie Lennox and the great standalone single ‘Mit Dir’.
Marc Almond and Dave Ball surprised all with a reunion for ‘One Night Only’ at London’s O2 Arena that has since become an ongoing world tour. But with it came a lavish boxed set, various books and new albums. In a London pub, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK had an in-depth chat with Dave Ball focussed on the ups and downs of SOFT CELL. This was followed up with an entertaining game of Vintage Synth Trumps in 2023.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has enjoyed seven interviews with Martyn Ware encompassing HEAVEN 17 and BEF, but this chat was about his time as a co-founder member of THE HUMAN LEAGUE to coincide with a live celebration of their first two albums ‘Reproduction’ and ‘Travelogue’. This was a fascinating insight into how THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s “vocals and synthesizers only” sound became the future of pop music.
Although he left JAPAN in 1980, guitarist Rob Dean gave an eye witness account to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK into the making of their third album ‘Quiet Life’ to coincide with a remastered boxset. JAPAN were in a state of transition from the growly glam funk of their first records to the mannered artful combo people remember them for today, so with him now residing in Costa Rica, this email Q&A provided some insightful commentary.
While most of ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s interviews with Our Man In Berlin have been conducted remotely at his convenience, apart from an onstage interview at a 2016 event in Düsseldorf, this Vintage Synth Trumps chat was a rare live outing on Skype. Among the topics were his remixes for NEW ORDER and YELLO while there was also mention of the Transcendent 2000 which Bernard Sumner had built from a kit and given to him.
With his noted dry humour, Billy Currie was on top form for probably the best interview in the Vintage Synth Trumps series so far. With insight into the workings of ULTRAVOX and VISAGE as well solo work and his brief time in the Gary Numan live band. Of the latter, Currie went into detail about the ARP Odyssey solo on ‘On Broadway’ while also shedding light on how ‘Touch & Go’ co-written with former band mate John Foxx became ‘Mr X’.
Some say that the Belgians don’t have a sense of humour, but that was proved wrong when surviving TELEX members Michel Moers and Dan Lacksman gave a laugh a minute interview to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK in support of their self-titled boxed set released by Mute Records. The most hilarious moment was when the pair recalled their dismay when Portugal awarded them 10 points at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1980.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has had the honour of interviewing Midge Ure on a number of occasions, the first time at the world famous Abbey Road Studios. But the most recent occasion was the best where he discussed a life in music ahead of his 70th birthday and a special show at the Royal Albert Hall. This was an extensive chat which included music technology such as the PPG Wave and the Roland GR700 guitar synthesizer.
With ‘Metamatic’ about to celebrate its 45th Anniversary, it was a perfect time for ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK to chat to John Foxx about his close encounters with synthesizers over a game of Vintage Synth Trumps in Düsseldorf, the spiritual home of modern electronic pop. As well as talking about his seminal debut solo album, he recalled how ULTRAVOX came to utilise synths and drum machines in their music.
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