David Ball, the co-founder of beloved English synth pop duo Soft Cell has died at 66. An Instagram post announcing the news noted that Ball passed on Wednesday (Oct. 22) in his sleep at his London home.

The group’s singer, Marc Almond, called Ball a “wonderfully brilliant musical genius” in a lengthy tribute in which he praised his musical partner of 46 years, saying that as he struggled to process the news he took solace that Ball was “in such a great place emotionally” recently.

“He was focused and so happy with the new album that we literally completed only a few days ago. 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,” Almond wrote, adding that Bal

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