The talented musician, one half of the groundbreaking 1980s electronic music band Soft Cell, has died at the age of 66.
Alongside vocalist Marc Almond, the duo achieved a worldwide hit with their version of Gloria Jones' Tainted Love in the mid-80s, and their first record Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret is considered a classic of electronic music.
He later formed the pioneering techno group The Grid, who secured chart success with 1994's the hit Swamp Thing.
Ball passed away calmly in his rest at his home in London on October 22, just weeks after performing a featured performance with Soft Cell at the Rewind music event in the Thames-side town.
Recent Health Challenges
At that show, Ball performed in a wheelchair, as he had for the last two years, after a spate of health issues.
"I ended up damage myself significantly," he commented in 2023. "I fractured spinal bones in my spine and cracked about multiple ribs and broke my arm."
After contracting pneumonia and developing blood poisoning, he was placed in an induced coma and remained in hospital for seven months.
However, he had been in "a great place emotionally" during the summer, as he was developing a new album with Almond, titled Danceteria, which is set for release in the coming year.
"He was focused and very pleased with the new album that we actually finished only a few days ago," stated the singer in a tribute.
"It's truly heartbreaking as next year was completely planned to be such an uplifting year for him, and I find comfort from the fact that he listened to the finished record and felt that it was a masterpiece."
Tributes
Almond described his collaborator as "an exceptionally talented musical genius", stating: "He was the heart and soul of Soft Cell and I'm extremely pleased of our body of work.
"Many thanks Dave for being an significant part of my existence and for the music you gave me. I couldn't be where I am without you."
His Grid bandmate from The Grid, also paid tribute, remembering Ball's "endless laughter" and "steadfast support".
"Forming a duo with someone is different from joining a group, the bond is very tight," he continued.
"That was the case with us. We went through so many extraordinary, incredible, life-affirming experiences together. Thank you, Dave."
Formative Years
Brought into the world into a one-parent family in the city of Chester in 1959, Ball was given up for adoption when he was 18 months of age.
He grew up in Blackpool with adoptive parents his caregivers, who changed his given name from Paul to his adopted name, together with his sibling Susan, who was also adopted.
He encountered Almond at an art college in the late 70s, where they were both studying art. Fuelled by a mutual passion of a music genre, they formed Soft Cell the very year, and promptly produced an EP.
Musical Partnership
The duo were an distinctive combination: Ball was the reserved technician, hunched over his synthesizer, while Almond was a flamboyant performer, all sparkle and eye-liner; but they attained a rare creative synergy.
Ball had developed a interest with synthesizers after watching the band Kraftwerk perform on BBC science show a popular series, and started to combine dark electronica to the catchy tunes Almond was writing.
Tainted Love became the United Kingdom's second most popular song of 1981, shifting 21 million copies worldwide. Together with hits by other artists, contemporary bands and electronic acts, it contributed to cleared the way for the synth-pop sound of the 80s.
The track was also included on their first album, their initial LP, which produced two further high-charting singles: Bedsitter and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye.
They followed the album up with the stand-alone single, Torch, which reached at the second position in 1982.
Career Highlights
Fame had its upsides. "I loved being able to purchase my initial property, having financial security and exploring, which makes me sound like a beauty queen," Ball not long ago shared with a music magazine.
But it also presented challenges. "Sudden riches allowed we could purchase newfound drugs to alleviate the boredom" of media interviews and television shows, Ball explained.
"I realize that's a cliché, but it's a truism for a valid cause, because it works for so many musicians."
Amidst the hedonistic lifestyle, the pair were also drifting apart, but they managed to create a second memorable record - the wayward, tense and aptly-titled The Art Of Falling Apart.
They released another album, their 1984 release This Last Night In Sodom, before dissolving the band to focus on individual endeavors.
Almond went on to have a successful solo career, including the chart-topping single Something's Got A Hold Of My Heart; while Ball created The Grid, who mixed acid house with melodic sounds over a enduring collaboration.
Later Work and Comebacks
Soft Cell reunited in 2001, producing the Top 40 album Cruelty Without Beauty.
Following another break, they returned in recent years, releasing the new tracks Northern Lights and Guilty (Cos I Say You Are) before staging what was supposed to be a final performance at the large venue on September 30, 2018.
Yet, they stayed active, creating their fifth album, Happiness Not Included, during the pandemic Covid lockdown.
Ball lately described the duo's upcoming release as a tribute to the New York club scene they visited while recording their initial records.
He added that his period in hospital had influenced the group's music.
"I experienced strange recollections when I was coming and going of the hospital because I was on pain medication," he told a music magazine.
"The new songs are a digital reflection of the noises in my head from those days.
"Simultaneously, it's about the times we got up to in the 1980s."
The final mixes were completed only a short time before Ball died. It is due for release in the spring of 2026.
