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Dave Ball
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Obituaries: Synth-Pop Hitmaker Dave Ball of Soft Cell, Pioneering Bass Virtuoso Anthony Jackson
This week we also acknowledge the passing of American guitar maker Ken Parker.
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Dave (David James) Ball, one half of the hitmaking Anglo synth-pop duo Soft Cell, died on Oct. 22, at age 66. A cause of death has not been announced.
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. “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 Ball’s recent compositions were “better than ever.”
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"Multi-instrumentalist Ball is best known for Soft Cell’s 1981 global hit cover of Gloria Jones’ aching 1964 love song 'Tainted Love' from the duo’s beloved debut album, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, which melded his future-sounding keyboard compositions with Marc Almond’s yearning vocals," a Billboard obituary notes.
"The pioneering synth pop group were fronted by singer Almond’s dramatic vocals and androgynous look, but it was Ball who wrote and performed nearly all of the band’s dark dance compositions at a time when synth-driven music was just emerging as a genre that would soon come to dominate the airwaves, and MTV, thanks to chart-topping groups such as Erasure, Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran and others."
"Soft Cell formed in 1979 when Ball and Almond met as students at Leeds Polytechnic in England. He first worked with Almond when he wrote an electronic backdrop for one of the singer’s improvised performance art pieces. That collab established the pair’s working template, with Almond as “the outgoing showman and lyricist and Ball as his quiet, poker-faced foil — a foil who wen ton to become a fearless sonic innovator.”
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The group released four more studio albums between 1982 and 2021, The Art of Falling Apart (1982), This Last Night in Sodom (1984), Cruelty Without Beauty (2002) and Happiness Not Included (2022). In addition to their signature hit “Tainted Love,” which hit No. 1 on the U.K. Singles Chart and spent 43 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 (peaking at No. 8) and sold an estimated 21 million copies worldwide, the group scored four more U.K. top 10 singles with “Bedsitter,” “Torch,” “What!” and “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye.”
Just a few weeks ago, Soft Cell played a headline slot at England Rewind Festival in Henley-on-Thames, with Ball performing in a wheelchair. He had suffered major medical problems after breaking his back in a fall in 2023.
Soft Cell split in 1984 and reunited in 2001. Ball released the 1983 solo album In Strict Tempo, performed in several short-lived bands and collaborated with experimental video art noise collective Psychic TV. He formed the duo The Grid with producer/songwriter Richard Norris, in 1988, and they released six full-length albums, beginning with 1990’s Electric Head through 2021’s Leviathan, a collaboration with King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp.
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Soft Cell's 2018 show in front of 20,000 fans at the O2 in London was intended to be their farewell, but they carried on with a 2022-2023 40th anniversary tour of the U.K. and U.S. celebrating their debut album.
Billboard reports that "Almond said it was fitting that their next, and now last, album together is called Danceteria, whose name harkens back to the early 1980s New York dance scene and the legendary Manhattan nightclub of that era that inspired so much of their music together; the LP is due out in spring 2026."
“We’ve been invested in the Soft Cell myths and stories, and Danceteria will now stand as an album that brings everything full circle for us," Almond says in a tribute to his musical partner. "I just wish that Dave could have stayed on long enough to celebrate our 50 years together in a couple of year’s time. He will always be loved by the Soft Cell fans who love his music and his music and memory will live on. At any given moment, someone somewhere in the world will be getting pleasure from a Soft Cell song. Thank you Dave for being an immense part of my life and for the music you gave me. I wouldn’t be where I am without you."
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A Guardian obituary writes that "Ball made the perfect foil for the vocalist Marc Almond. Where Almond was mercurial and histrionic, Ball assumed the role of mysterious and reclusive mastermind. Almond would invariably be writhing in something black and skin-tight, possibly festooned with zips, while Ball might be wearing a suit and tie and attending soberly to his keyboard. Ball told the Guardian: 'We were a weird couple: Marc, this gay bloke in makeup; and me, a big guy who looked like a minder.'"
Dave Ball's work with Soft Cell and The Grid had a major impact in Canada, not just on the charts but on the club scene.
On Facebook, veteran Toronto dance music DJ, producer and label owner Vince Degiorgio paid this tribute: "RIP Dave Ball of Soft Cell, but also, The Grid, which provided the world with [1994 hit] 'Swamp Thing'. Proud to say that thanks to the DJs and clubgoers, Canada was the only territory in the world where the GRID album went gold and inspired a successful cover version as well. 'Say Hello Wave Goodbye' and 'Tainted Love' played at the wrong speed were all the rage in Toronto clubs."
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Toronto club DJ and musician Barbi Castelvi (recent chair of electronic album of the year at the Juno Awards) offered this tribute to Billboard Canada: "Soft Cell were one of the artists that introduced me to darker synth pop sounds as a young musician. Dave Ball was a scientist of sound. I’m a classical pianist and of course have always been interested in synthesizers and electronic sounds. I remember hearing Chris Sheppard playing 'Sex Dwarf' on CFNY late at night and also seeing their videos on City Limits. I still have my original vinyl of Non Stop Erotic Cafe. It was a shame he wasn’t present for the Soft Cell show in Toronto recently."
Anthony (Claiborne) Jackson, an American session musician widely credited with pioneering the six-string bass, died on Oct. 19, at age 73. He had been suffering from Parkinson's Disease.
Jackson performed live in more than 30 countries and recorded in more than 3000 sessions on more than 500 albums.
A Guitar World obituary reports that news of Jackson's passing "was confirmed by high-end bass manufacturer Fodera Guitars, with whom Jackson worked very closely.
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"Jackson had started working with Fodera back in 1984, and the firm helped “embody” Jackson’s six-string bass vision and turn it into a reality. Jackson and his unique instrument – which was tuned BEADGC, and referred to as a 'contrabass guitar' – pushed the bass to new frontiers.
"Armed with his actualized contrabass concept, which unshackled him from what he felt was the limited four-string design, Jackson sprinkled his distinct low-end magic on the work of some of the biggest names in the business."
In explaining his love of six-string bass, Jackson once told Music Radar that "The only reason the bass had four strings was because Leo Fender was thinking of an upright bass, but he built it along guitar lines because that was his training. The logical conception for the bass guitar encompasses six strings.”
Jackson played piano before starting guitar in his teens. Early inspirations for his bass playing included James Jamerson and Jack Casady. He worked as a session musician, in the Billy Paul band and with Philadelphia International Records. Paul had the 1972 hit "Me and Mrs. Jones" as well as a legendary performance on "For the Love of Money" by The O'Jays.
Jackson's long discography includes extensive work with Chaka Khan, Patti Austin, Lee Ritenour, Roberta Flack, Grover Washington Jr., Buddy Rich, Steve Khan and Michel Petrucciani, and other credits include Steely Dan, Quincy Jones, Luther Vandross, Pat Metheny, Madonna, The O'Jays, the Bee Gees and Paul Simon.
To get some perspective on Jackson's impact on the world of bass playing, Billboard Canada contacted internationally-acclaimed Toronto bassist, composer and producer Roberto Occhipinti.
He responded that "The music world lost a true pioneer in the advancement of what Quincy Jones called 'the most important instrument of the 20th century.' Bold words, but think about it, orchestras have a number of basses to generate enough volume , power and clarity to match the larger resources and in the jazz world only a tuba or a string bass with a microphone could keep up with a set of drums.
"With the invention of the electric bass guitar, now a single musician could fill out the bass requirement with ease. This changed the course of music making, especially in the world of popular music. Think of the sound of Motown without James Jamerson or the Beatles without Paul McCartney, to name but two examples."
"The watershed moment for the advancement of the instrument came, in my opinion with the arrival of Jaco Pastorius, reimagining the instrument not just to fill the role of bass play but to explore the possibilities of soloing with the melodic invention of the guitar.
"This is where Anthony Jackson arrives. He pioneered the use of an extended range for the instrument, a 6 string version christened a Contra bass Guitar and freely associating to the guitar family and not just as a substitute for the string bass. This liberation can be heard on recordings by artists such as the O’Jays (that’s Anthony on the famous opening to 'For the Love of Money') Steely Dan, Luther Vandross, Donald Fagen, jazz artists like Michel Camilo, Hiromi, Al Di Meola, Nancy Wilson, Quincy Jones and many more.
"As a pioneer of the instrument, he helped design this new contrabass guitar and this instrument is now as common as the fender precision bass was at the advent of pop music. His legacy is not just the voluminous musical output and virtuosic technique but the major advancement of the evolution of the instrument and its effect on music to this day."
Peter Cardinali, another noted Canadian bassist, record producer and record label head (ALMA Records), offered Billboard Canada this tribute:
"I was very saddened to hear about the passing of Anthony Jackson, one of the greatest bass players to ever grace this planet. From the Bee Gees, Madonna, and Chaka Khan to Chick Corea, Steely Dan and Stephane Grappelli, he truly was one of the most heartfelt, innovative bassists of our time. Among his many accomplishments, he was also single-handedly responsible for pioneering the 6 string bass.
"I had the honour of working with him on several Teena Marie records. He was an absolute monster musician and a real gem of a man. We’re going to miss you Anthony. Rest in peace."
Jazz fusion guitar virtuoso Al Di Meola also paid tribute to Jackson’s inventive legacy. “Anthony’s impact extended far beyond the notes he played,” he said. “He pioneered the concept of the six-string ‘contrabass guitar,’ revolutionizing the role of the electric bass in art, jazz, funk, and beyond. Anthony was one of the most extraordinary musicians I’ve ever had the honour to play with – a true innovator whose genius on the six-string contrabass reshaped modern music. His sound, precision, and soul were unmatched.”
"From Steely Dan to long-time Michael Jackson producer Quincy Jones, Luther Vandross, Pat Metheny and Paul Simon, he showed that bass players need not just hold down a supportive musical role. They could be harmonic and imaginative."
Ken Parker, an American luthier known for his unique archtop guitars and as the founder of Parker Guitars, died on Oct. 5, at age 73, from cancer.
Parker was raised on Long Island, New York, and made his first guitar (out of wood and cardboard) at the age of 13. In his early 20s, after studying various aspects of tool-making and woodworking, he began building stringed instruments while working with the furniture-maker Richard Newman.
In the 1970s, he began working with a lute maker on Long Island. He then worked at Stuyvesant Music in Manhattan repairing string instruments.
In the early 1990s, he founded the company Parker Guitars and collaborated with Larry Fishman to design the Fly, a controversial, innovative and futuristic electric guitar brought out in 1993. The Fly incorporated non-traditional materials like fiberglass and Carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer blended with more traditional elements like mahogany, basswood and spruce. The Fly had 11 patents and was exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution.
Parker sold his company in 2004, and later started designing archtop guitars. His archtop designs incorporate an adjustable neck that mounts to the guitar via a turnbuckle mechanism that allows the action to be adjusted without affecting the tuning, a unique tailpiece and non-traditional sound holes. In the 2010s, Parker had a shop in Massachusetts where he built a small number of hand made and individualized custom archtop guitars per year.
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