Dave Ball, one half of pioneering synth-pop duo Gentle Cell, has died on the age 66. He handed away peacefully in his sleep at his London residence on Wednesday (October 22).
Ball’s mixed love of electronica and Northern Soul fed into his inventive relationship with Marc Almond, a fellow artwork scholar at Leeds Polytechnic, once they started performing as Gentle Cell within the late Nineteen Seventies. As their million-selling cowl of Gloria Jones’ “Tainted Love” topped the UK charts in 1981, the duo appeared to enrich each other completely: Ball the taciturn background presence, Almond the showy, kohl-eyed frontman.
Non-Cease Erotic Cabaret, the primary of 5 studio albums collectively, set a blueprint for ’80s synth-pop that was quickly adopted by Yazoo, Eurythmics, Pet Store Boys and Erasure.
When Gentle Cell first break up in 1984, Ball handed via a few short-lived bands earlier than collaborating with Psychic TV, the place he met Richard Norris. The pair fashioned electro-house act The Grid, issuing a sequence of albums and scoring a significant hit with 1994’s delirious “Swamp Factor”.
Ball’s different work as producer and remixer concerned initiatives for The Virgin Prunes, Kylie Minogue and David Bowie. Most not too long ago he’d accomplished work on a brand new Gentle Cell album, Danceteria, due out subsequent spring.
“He was a splendidly sensible musical genius and the pair of us have been on a journey collectively for nearly 50 years,” wrote Almond in tribute. “Within the early days we had been obnoxious and troublesome, two belligerent artwork college students who needed to do issues our means, even when it was the incorrect means. We had been naive and made errors, though we by no means actually noticed them as such. It was all simply part of the journey. Dave and I had been at all times a bit chalk-and-cheese, however possibly that’s why the chemistry between us labored so nicely.
“Each time we got here again collectively after lengthy intervals aside there was at all times that heat and chemistry. There was a deep mutual respect that gave our mixed songwriting its distinctive energy. We laughed loads, and shared a way of humour, and a love of movie, books and music. Dave had cabinets filled with books and an array of great and shocking musical references. He was the center and soul of Gentle Cell and I’m very pleased with our legacy.
“It’s becoming in lots of ways in which our subsequent (and now our final) album collectively known as ‘Danceteria’, as that theme takes us again to New York Metropolis within the early Eighties the place a lot of our musical concepts had been fashioned. That was a time and place that basically formed us. In addition to being quintessentially British, we at all times felt that we had been additionally an honorary American band. We’ve been invested within the Gentle Cell myths and tales, and ‘Danceteria’ will now stand as an album that brings every part full circle for us. I simply want that Dave may have stayed on lengthy sufficient to have fun our 50 years collectively in a few years’ time. He’ll at all times be liked by the Gentle Cell followers who love his music and his music and reminiscence will dwell on. At any given second, somebody someplace on the planet will probably be getting pleasure from a Gentle Cell music.
“Thanks Dave for being an immense a part of my life and for the music you gave me. I wouldn’t be the place I’m with out you.”
Richard Norris, Ball’s companion in The Grid, added a tribute of his personal: “Dave has been an enormous a part of my musical life for a few years. Being in a duo with somebody is totally different from being in a band: the bond may be very tight. That’s the way it was with us. We went via so many exceptional, extraordinary, life-affirming experiences collectively. Thanks, Dave. Thanks for the great occasions, the infinite laughter, your unwavering friendship. Most of all, thanks for the music.”