Dave Ball, one half of pioneering synth-pop duo Mushy 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 artistic relationship with Marc Almond, a fellow artwork scholar at Leeds Polytechnic, once they started performing as Mushy Cell within the late 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 Mushy Cell first break up in 1984, Ball handed by a few short-lived bands earlier than collaborating with Psychic TV, the place he met Richard Norris. The pair shaped 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 tasks for The Virgin Prunes, Kylie Minogue and David Bowie. Most just lately he’d accomplished work on a brand new Mushy Cell album, Danceteria, due out subsequent spring.
“He was a splendidly good 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 method, even when it was the unsuitable method. 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 all the time a bit chalk-and-cheese, however possibly that’s why the chemistry between us labored so nicely.
“Every time we got here again collectively after lengthy durations aside there was all the time that heat and chemistry. There was a deep mutual respect that gave our mixed songwriting its distinctive energy. We laughed quite a bit, and shared a way of humour, and a love of movie, books and music. Dave had cabinets stuffed with books and an array of fantastic and stunning musical references. He was the guts and soul of Mushy Cell and I’m very happy with our legacy.
“It’s becoming in lots of ways in which our subsequent (and now our final) album collectively is named ‘Danceteria’, as that theme takes us again to New York Metropolis within the early Nineteen Eighties the place lots of our musical concepts had been shaped. That was a time and place that actually formed us. In addition to being quintessentially British, we all the time felt that we had been additionally an honorary American band. We’ve been invested within the Mushy Cell myths and tales, and ‘Danceteria’ will now stand as an album that brings all the things full circle for us. I simply want that Dave might have stayed on lengthy sufficient to have a good time our 50 years collectively in a few years’ time. He’ll all the time be cherished by the Mushy Cell followers who love his music and his music and reminiscence will reside on. At any given second, somebody someplace on the earth can be getting pleasure from a Mushy Cell track.
“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 could be very tight. That’s the way it was with us. We went by so many exceptional, extraordinary, life-affirming experiences collectively. Thanks, Dave. Thanks for the nice occasions, the limitless laughter, your unwavering friendship. Most of all, thanks for the music.”
