David Ball, Co-Founder of ‘Tainted Love’ Synth Duo Soft Cell Dies at 66

David Ball, the co-founder of beloved English synth popular duo Soft Cell has died astatine 66. An Instagram post announcing the quality noted that Ball passed connected Wednesday (Oct. 22) successful his slumber astatine his London home.

The group’s singer, Marc Almond, called Ball a “wonderfully superb philharmonic genius” successful a lengthy tribute successful which helium praised his philharmonic spouse of 46 years, saying that arsenic helium struggled to process the quality helium took solace that Ball was “in specified a large spot emotionally” recently.

“He was focused and truthful blessed with the caller medium that we virtually completed lone a fewer days ago. It’s truthful bittersweet arsenic 2026 was each acceptable to beryllium specified an uplifting twelvemonth for him, and I instrumentality immoderate solace from the information that helium heard the finished grounds and felt that it was a large portion of work,” Almond wrote, adding that Ball’s caller compositions were “better than ever.”

At property clip nary origin of decease had been announced.

Multi-instrumentalist Ball is champion known for Soft Cell’s 1981 planetary deed screen of Gloria Jones’ aching 1964 emotion opus “Tainted Love” from the duo’s beloved debut album, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, which melded his future-sounding keyboard compositions with Almond’s yearning vocals. The pioneering synth popular radical were fronted by vocalist Almond’s melodramatic vocals and androgynous look, but it was Ball who wrote and performed astir each of the band’s acheronian creation compositions astatine a clip erstwhile synth-driven euphony was conscionable emerging arsenic a genre that would soon travel to predominate the airwaves, and MTV, acknowledgment to chart-topping groups specified arsenic Erasure, Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran and others.

According to an authoritative bio, the set formed successful 1979 erstwhile Ball and Almond met arsenic students astatine Leeds Polytechnic successful England aft Ball, a instrumentality of the fashionable bluish psyche dependable and German techno radical Kraftwerk, moved from Blackpool to Leeds to survey good art. He archetypal worked with Almond erstwhile helium wrote an physics backdrop for 1 of the singer’s improvised show creation pieces. That collab established the pair’s moving template, with Almond arsenic “the outgoing showman and lyricist and Ball arsenic his quiet, poker-faced foil — a foil who wen ton to go a fearless sonic innovator.”

The radical released 4 much workplace albums betwixt 1982 and 2021, The Art of Falling Apart (1982), This Last Night successful Sodom (1984), Cruelty Without Beauty (2002) and Happiness Not Included (2022). In summation to their signature deed &ldqu...