Death Pool Update: Dave Ball of Soft Cell, age 66.

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Soft Cell's musical force Dave Ball dies, aged 66 

Dave Ball, one half of the pioneering 1980s synth-pop band Soft Cell, has died at the age of 66.

Alongside singer Marc Almond, the duo scored a worldwide hit with their cover of Gloria Jones' Tainted Love in 1984, and their debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret is considered a classic of electronic music.

He later formed the pioneering techno group The Grid, who achieved chart success with 1994's Swamp Thing.

Ball died peacefully in his sleep at his home in London on Wednesday 22 October, just weeks after playing a headline show with Soft Cell at the Rewind Festival in Henley-on-Thames.

During that show, Ball performed in a wheelchair, as he had for the last two years, following a spate of ill-health.

"I managed to damage myself quite a bit," he told the Yorkshire Post in 2023. "I fractured lower vertebrae in my spine and cracked about five ribs and broke my wrist".

After catching pneumonia and developing sepsis, he was placed in an induced coma and remained in hospital for seven months.

However, he had been in "a great place emotionally" over the summer, as he worked on a new album with Almond, called Danceteria, which is scheduled for release next year.

"He was focused and so happy with the new album that we literally completed only a few days ago," said the singer in a tribute.

"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."