It was Thursday night when I saw that Dave Ball of Soft Cell had died. I hadn’t been following Dave closely and I was unaware of his myriad of health issues he’d been dealing with in the last few years. A fall down a stairwell led to broken vertebrae and bones, which was followed by pneumonia and sepsis at the age of 64. That he managed to pull out of all of that and live for another two years was a minor miracle! Particularly since Soft Cell had just put the wraps on their [now] final album “Danceteria,” just days before dying in his sleep on October 22nd.

Dave Ball had met Marc Almond at art college at Leeds Polytechnic and the two had formed a partnership that had managed, incredibly, to scale the charts worldwide. And this in a time when music without guitars was viewed through narrowed eyes in America. Even so, the soundtrack to the summer of 1982 included the Top Ten US smash that was “Tainted Love” where the single entered the charts in January of that year and began its slow, stately climb to the top ten. Eventually setting a record for being in the US Hot 100 for 43 weeks. I still reliably hear it on public music systems! And at under three minutes, it never outstays its welcome.

In England the success was bigger, with the single selling over a million copies and behind only “Don’t You Want Me, “ by The Human League, as the top selling single of the holy year of 1981. The group made a thematic single with two soul covers on either side of the record. The flip side was the Supremes classic “Where Did Our Love Go?” The band weren’t savvy enough to have put a self-written tune on the B-side so all those millions of sales worldwide didn’t exactly fill their coffers with royalties. 

But their intent was never to be a chart-friendly pop band. The PMRC might have been willed into existence three years early if Karenna Gore had been a Soft Cell fan with a copy of “Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret.” As if the title weren’t warning enough, the button pushing “Sex Dwarf” certainly would have curled Tipper’s hair. 

The dynamic of the duo was complementary with singer Marc Almond bearing the influence of balladeer Scott Walker, and another cabaret adjacent titan like Jacques Brel. While Dave’s aesthetic was informed by edge-exploratory music like Throbbing Gristle and his only brush with the cabaret was when he played on Cabaret Voltaire’s album “The Crackdown.” The roil and churn between them managed to cover a lot of stylistic and thematic background. 

After three albums together that ran the gamut from worldwide smash hit precious metal to literally “off the charts,” the duo split shortly following the release of “This Last Night In Sodom.” Marc Almond moved deeper left field with his Marc And The Mambas project. While Dave released “I Strict Tempo,” his only solo album until 2016, which featured vocals by Genesis P. Orridge and Gavin Friday. 

I picked up the great wax by Vicious Pink Phenomenon that Dave had produced and played on. VPP had first caught my ear on “Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret” as the backing vocalists there, and I have followed their career ever since. A stint by Mr. Ball in Genesis P. Orridge’s Psychic TV led to a long-term link up with Richard Norris from that project who formed The Grid with Ball and they were not only dance artists during the explosion of House music in the UK, but they were also prolific remixers. Often crossing paths with Marc Almond. I have their album recorded with Robert Fripp [!] on my seemingly endless want list.

Ball and Almond would unite for various projects following the initial burst of Soft Cell music. Compilations, and even new albums would manifest on occasion. I had 2002’s”Cruelty Without Beauty” but still have yet to hear “Happiness Not Included;” recorded twenty years later. The band famously performed their “final” concert in 2018 and enjoyed it enough to lay waste to that notion within months. With the “*Happiness Not Included” album being the first fruit of their renewed commitment.

Hearing that their new album will be named after New York’s famed Danceteria makes its issue next year a likely monastic target. The band famously loved the NYC nightlife and were very early [British] converts to MDMA from their time there. This extracurricular intake directly informed their classic remix album, “Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing.” 

So let’s drag out our Soft Cell collection and give the amazing 12” singles a play as they were really the best of their breed for the heady times of ‘81-‘82. The quality and depth of those remixes showed up most of their British peers. That was down to Dave Ball and Mike Thorne’s endless capacity for arrangements. And I’ve played my bronzed by still playable copy of my favorite of their albums, “The Art Of Falling Apart” a lot this week. And our condolences to his friends and family at this time.

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