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

David Ball, the co-founder of beloved English synth pop duo Soft Cell has died at 66. An Instagram post announcing the news noted that Ball passed on Wednesday (Oct. 22) in his sleep at his London home.

The group’s singer, Marc Almond, called Ball a “wonderfully brilliant musical genius” in a lengthy tribute in which he praised his musical partner of 46 years, saying that as he struggled to process the news he took solace that Ball was “in such a great place emotionally” recently.

“He was focused and so happy with the new album that we literally completed only a few days ago. It’s so sad as 2026 was all set to be such an uplifting year for him, and I take some solace from the fact that he heard the finished record and felt that it was a great piece of work,” Almond wrote, adding that Ball’s recent compositions were “better than ever.”

At press time no cause of death had been announced.

Multi-instrumentalist Ball is best known for Soft Cell’s 1981 global hit cover of Gloria Jones’ aching 1964 love song “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 pop group were fronted by singer Almond’s dramatic vocals and androgynous look, but it was Ball who wrote and performed nearly all of the band’s dark dance compositions at a time when synth-driven music was just emerging as a genre that would soon come to dominate the airwaves, and MTV, thanks to chart-topping groups such as Erasure, Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran and others.

According to an official bio, the band formed in 1979 when Ball and Almond met as students at Leeds Polytechnic in England after Ball, a fan of the popular northern soul sound and German techno group Kraftwerk, moved from Blackpool to Leeds to study fine art. He first worked with Almond when he wrote an electronic backdrop for one of the singer’s improvised performance art pieces. That collab established the pair’s working template, with Almond as “the outgoing showman and lyricist and Ball as his quiet, poker-faced foil — a foil who wen ton to become a fearless sonic innovator.”

The group released four more studio albums between 1982 and 2021, The Art of Falling Apart (1982), This Last Night in Sodom (1984), Cruelty Without Beauty (2002) and Happiness Not Included (2022). In addition to their signature hit “Tainted Love,” which hit No. 1 on the U.K. Singles Chart and spent 43 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 (peaking at No. 8) and sold an estimated 21 million copies worldwide, the group scored four more U.K. top 10 singles with “Bedsitter,” “Torch,” “What!” and “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye.”

Ball’s death came just weeks after the pair played a headline slot at England Rewind Festival in Henley-on-Thames, where the BBC reported that he performed in a wheelchair, as he had for the past two years due to ongoing health issues as a result of damage from a previous spine fracture suffered in 2023 in a fall, in which also broke five ribs and his wrist. Ball subsequently caught pneumonia and developed sepsis, which led to him being placed in an induced coma during a seven month hospital stay.

David James Ball was born in Cheshire, England on May 3, 1959 and given up for adoption at 18-months old. In addition to his work with Soft Cell — which split in 1984 and reunited in 2001 — he released the 1983 solo album In Strict Tempo, performed in several short-lived bands and collaborated with experimental video art noise collective Psychic TV. It was during his time with that group that he teamed up with member producer/songwriter Richard Norris, with whom he formed the duo The Grid in 1988. The pair released six full-length albums over the years, beginning with 1990’s Electric Head through 2021’s Leviathan, a collaboration with King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp.

“His tunes and hooks are still unmistakably Soft Cell, yet he always took it to the next level too,” Almond said of Ball. “He was a wonderfully brilliant musical genius and the pair of us have been on a journey together for almost 50 years. In the early days we were obnoxious and difficult, two belligerent art students who wanted to do things our way, even if it was the wrong way. We were naive and made mistakes, although we never really saw them as such. It was all just a part of the adventure. Dave and I were always a bit chalk-and-cheese, but maybe that’s why the chemistry between us worked so well.”

Though their working relationship was punctuated by long gaps, Almond said the magic was ever-present. “Whenever we came back together after long periods apart there was always that warmth and chemistry,” he wrote. “There was a deep mutual respect that gave our combined songwriting its unique power. We laughed a lot, and shared a sense of humour, and a love of film, books and music. Dave had shelves full of books and an array of wonderful and surprising musical references. He was the heart and soul of Soft Cell and I’m very proud of our legacy.”

The band’s 2018 show in front of 20,000 fans at the O2 in London was intended to be their farewell, but turned out to be the start of their long last act, which included a 2022-2023 40th anniversary tour of the U.K. and U.S. celebrating their debut album.

Almond said it was fitting that their next, and now last, album together is called Danceteria, whose name harkens back to the early 1980s New York dance scene and the legendary Manhattan nightclub of that era that inspired so much of their music together; the LP is due out in spring 2026.

“That was a time and place that really shaped us. As well as being quintessentially British, we always felt that we were also an honorary American band,” Almond said of the club that once hosted a Soft Cell album launch party. “We’ve been invested in the Soft Cell myths and stories, and Danceteria will now stand as an album that brings everything full circle for us. I just wish that Dave could have stayed on long enough to celebrate our 50 years together in a couple of year’s time. He will always be loved by the Soft Cell fans who love his music and his music and memory will live on. At any given moment, someone somewhere in the world will be getting pleasure from a Soft Cell song. 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.”

Listen to “Tainted Love” below.