The talented musician, one half of the groundbreaking 1980s electronic music band Soft Cell, has passed away at the age of 66.
Alongside singer Marc Almond, the team scored a worldwide hit with their cover of Gloria Jones' Tainted Love in the mid-80s, and their first record Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret is considered a seminal work of synth-pop.
He subsequently formed the innovative techno group The Grid, who secured chart success with 1994's Swamp Thing.
Ball died peacefully in his sleep at his home in London on October 22, only a short time after performing a headline show with Soft Cell at the Rewind Festival in Henley-on-Thames.
Health Struggles
During that show, Ball appeared in a mobility chair, as he had for the previous couple of years, after a period of ill-health.
"I ended up injure myself quite a bit," he commented in 2023. "I fractured spinal bones in my back and cracked about multiple ribs and fractured my arm."
After contracting pneumonia and developing blood poisoning, he was placed in an induced coma and remained in the hospital for seven months.
However, he had been in "high spirits emotionally" during the summer, as he was developing a new album with Almond, titled Danceteria, which is set for publication next year.
"He was focused and very pleased with the latest project that we actually completed only a short time ago," stated the singer in a heartfelt message.
"It's so sad as next year was completely planned to be such an uplifting year for him, and I find comfort from the fact that he heard the completed album and believed that it was a masterpiece."
Heartfelt Messages
Almond described his collaborator as "a wonderfully brilliant creative mastermind", stating: "He was the core essence of Soft Cell and I'm extremely pleased of our body of work.
"Thank you Dave for being an significant part of my life and for the songs you created with me. I wouldn't be where I am without you."
Richard Norris from The Grid, also paid tribute, recalling Ball's "constant humor" and "unwavering friendship".
"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 experienced so many remarkable, extraordinary, life-affirming moments as a team. Thank you, Dave."
Formative Years
Brought into the world into a one-parent family in Chester in the late 50s, Ball was given up for adoption when he was a year and a half old.
He grew up in Blackpool with adoptive parents Donald and Brenda Ball, who altered his first name from Paul to David, alongside his sibling his sister, who was similarly welcomed.
He met Almond at an art college in 1977, where they were both studying fine arts. Fuelled by a mutual passion of a music genre, they formed Soft Cell the very year, and promptly produced an EP.
Creative Collaboration
The duo were an unusual pairing: Ball was the reserved musician, hunched over his keyboard, while Almond was a charismatic performer, all glitter and makeup; but they attained a rare creative synergy.
Ball had developed a fascination with electronic instruments after watching Kraftwerk appear on BBC science show Tomorrow's World, and started to marry moody electronic sounds to the soaring melodies Almond was writing.
Tainted Love became the UK's second most popular song of 1981, shifting 21 million units worldwide. Alongside hits by other artists, contemporary bands and Ultravox, it helped cleared the way for the synth-pop sound of the 1980s.
The track was also included on their first album, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, which produced two further top five singles: Bedsitter and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye.
They followed the album up with the stand-alone single, Torch, which peaked at number two in 1982.
Career Highlights
Success had its benefits. "I enjoyed being able to afford my first home, having financial security and travelling, which makes me sound like a beauty queen," Ball recently shared with a music magazine.
But it also caused problems. "Sudden riches meant we could afford newfound drugs to relieve the boredom" of press appearances and television shows, Ball explained.
"I know that's a common saying, but it's a truism for a good reason, because it works for so many bands."
During the hedonistic lifestyle, the duo were also drifting apart, but they succeeded to produce a second memorable record - the wayward, tense and aptly-titled The Art Of Falling Apart.
They released one more album, their 1984 release This Last Night In Sodom, before ending the group to concentrate on other projects.
Almond went on to have a prosperous individual path, including the chart-topping single Something's Got A Hold Of My Heart; while Ball formed The Grid, who mixed dance music with melodic sounds over a long-lasting partnership.
Later Work and Comebacks
Soft Cell came back together in the early 2000s, producing the charting album Cruelty Without Beauty.
After another break, they returned in recent years, releasing the original singles Northern Lights and Guilty (Cos I Say You Are) before performing what was supposed to be a farewell show at the large venue on September 30, 2018.
However, they remained together, creating their latest project, Happiness Not Included, during the pandemic restrictions.
Ball lately characterized the band's new album as a tribute to the New York club scene they frequented while recording their first two albums.
He noted that his period in medical care had influenced the group's music.
"I experienced strange recollections when I was coming and going of the hospital because I was on morphine," he told a music magazine.
"Our latest tracks are a digital reflection of the sounds in my mind from those days.
"Simultaneously, it's about the times me and Marc got up to in the 80s."
The last versions were completed only a short time before Ball passed away. It is due for launch in Spring 2026.
