Soft Cell
Dave Ball Dead at 66
Published October 23, 2025 8:31 AM PDT
|
Updated October 23, 2025 9:01 AM PDT
Dave Ball — one half of the 1980s New Wave pop group Soft Cell — has died at age 66, according to the band’s official website.
Ball was the synthesizer-keyboardist and Marc Almond was the singer of the group that recorded the iconic 1981 track “Tainted Love” … a massive hit, which was actually a cover.
Ball died in his sleep at home in London Wednesday. He’d recently played a show with Soft Cell, just weeks earlier … he was in a wheelchair at the time.
The group’s website posted a statement and a series of tributes to Ball following his death.
Ball had been recovering from a fractured vertebrae and broken ribs about 3 years ago when he caught pneumonia, and sepsis followed … he was put in an induced coma for seven months, BBC News reports. But he was in good spirits recently, reportedly hard at work on a new album with Almond before he died.
The group produced five studio albums — releasing “Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret” in 1981, “The Art of Falling Apart” in 1983, and “This Last Night in Sodom” in 1984 … they reunited to release two more records, in 2002 and 2022 … and their newest album was reportedly in progress when Ball died.
Ball also cofounded the 1990s techno group The Grid.
He was 66.
RIP