Soft Cell

Before forming the platinum-selling synthpop duo Soft Cell in Leeds, England, in 1980, art students Marc Almond and Dave Ball first worked together while creating music for the theatre. This theatrical background inspired Soft Cell's live performances and helped the group build an early following. Soft Cell released a self-financed EP, Mutant Moments, in 1980, then reached a global audience in 1981 with a cover of Gloria Jones' cult favourite "Tainted Love." The song became the best-selling UK single of the year, and its success helped push the group's debut album, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, to platinum status. Following 1983's The Art of Falling Apart and 1984's The Last Night in Sodom, the band split up. A solo career for Almond followed, while Ball resurfaced in dance group The Grid, before the duo decided to reform in 2001 and release new material for the first time in nearly 20 years. Currently Without Beauty was released in 2002 with the second single, a cover of The Four Seasons' "The Night," breaking into the UK Top 40. An album of remixed Soft Cell tracks was released in 2007 featuring mixers Cicada, Spektrum, Paul Dakeyne and Manhattan Clique. Almond signed a two-album deal with BMG in 2016 and released Hits and Pieces/The Best of Soft Cell & Marc Almond, a greatest hits album that debuted at number seven in the UK Albums Chart in 2017. Five years later, Soft Cell returned to the Top 10 with the duo's sixth album *Happiness Not Included, which reached Number 7 in the UK and Number 12 in Germany. Following a tour in 2025, David Ball died on October 22, 2025, at the age of 66.