{"id":6033,"date":"2024-11-25T16:08:57","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T16:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history\/?p=6033"},"modified":"2025-02-04T16:31:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T16:31:15","slug":"dave-ball-meets-marc-almond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/dave-ball-meets-marc-almond\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Ball Meets Marc Almond"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>David James Ball, born on 3 May 1959 in Chester, Cheshire, is an influential English producer and electronic musician best known for his work with the synthpop duo <em>Soft Cell<\/em> and the electronic music group <em>The Grid<\/em>. Raised in <strong>Blackpool<\/strong> after being adopted, Ball attended <a href=\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/arnold-school-merges-with-king-edward-vii-and-queen-mary-school\/\">Arnold School<\/a> before moving on to studying art at Leeds Polytechnic, where he met <strong>Marc Almond<\/strong>, and together they formed <em>Soft Cell<\/em> in 1978. The duo found fame with hits like &#8220;Tainted Love&#8221; and &#8220;Say Hello, Wave Goodbye,&#8221; and continued until their split in 1984. Ball&#8217;s solo career began in 1983 with the album <em>In Strict Tempo<\/em>, featuring collaborations with artists like Gavin Friday and Genesis P-Orridge. After Soft Cell&#8217;s dissolution, he formed various bands, including <em>Other People<\/em> and <em>English Boy on the Loveranch<\/em>, both of which had short-lived runs in the 1980s. He also joined <em>Psychic TV<\/em> for a time, contributing to compilations like <em>Jack the Tab<\/em> and <em>Tekno Acid Beat<\/em>, where he met Richard Norris. The pair later formed <em>The Grid<\/em>, achieving success with tracks like &#8220;Swamp Thing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In the 2000s, Ball reunited with Almond for <em>Soft Cell&#8217;s<\/em> 2001 album <em>Cruelty Without Beauty<\/em> and participated in a final reunion show in 2018 to mark the duo&#8217;s 40th anniversary. Ball has also pursued a solo career, including projects like <em>Nitewreckage<\/em> and collaborations with artists like Jon Savage for the album <em>Photosynthesis<\/em> (2016). Beyond performing, Ball worked extensively as a producer, remixing tracks for David Bowie, Kylie Minogue, and Erasure, and producing bands like <em>Vicious Pink Phenomena<\/em> and <em>Virgin Prunes<\/em> in the &#8217;80s. His broad contributions to electronic music and production cement him as a key figure in the British music scene.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Soft Cell interview Dave Ball and Marc Almond *\" width=\"680\" height=\"383\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yafo8SOGQzg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David James Ball, born on 3 May 1959 in Chester, Cheshire, is an influential English producer and electronic musician best known for his work with the synthpop duo Soft Cell and the electronic music group The Grid. Raised in Blackpool after being adopted, Ball attended Arnold School before moving on to studying art at Leeds Polytechnic, where he met Marc Almond, and together they formed Soft Cell in 1978. The duo found fame with hits like &#8220;Tainted Love&#8221; and &#8220;Say Hello, Wave Goodbye,&#8221; and continued until their split in 1984. Ball&#8217;s solo career began in 1983 with the album In&#8230;  <a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/dave-ball-meets-marc-almond\/\" title=\"Read Dave Ball Meets Marc Almond\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6035,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[118,121,244],"class_list":["post-6033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-117","tag-118","tag-celebrities","tag-music"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.8 (Yoast SEO v25.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dave Ball Meets Marc Almond<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dave Ball, born in Chester and raised in Blackpool, is a pioneering English producer and electronic musician, best known for his work with Soft Cell and The Grid. 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Partnering with Marc Almond, they created iconic hits like &#039;Tainted Love.&#039; Ball&#039;s career spans solo projects, collaborations with artists like Kylie Minogue and David Bowie, and influential work as a producer and remixer.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/dave-ball-meets-marc-almond\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blackpool History\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-25T16:08:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-04T16:31:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/David_Ball_of_Soft_Cell_1983-enhanced.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1436\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ed\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ed\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/dave-ball-meets-marc-almond\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/dave-ball-meets-marc-almond\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ed\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/#\/schema\/person\/6ba254dbcdf45d011efc9363cd4c2295\"},\"headline\":\"Dave Ball Meets Marc Almond\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-25T16:08:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-04T16:31:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/dave-ball-meets-marc-almond\/\"},\"wordCount\":288,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/dave-ball-meets-marc-almond\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/David_Ball_of_Soft_Cell_1983-enhanced.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"1978\",\"Celebrities\",\"Music\"],\"articleSection\":[\"1978\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/dave-ball-meets-marc-almond\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/dave-ball-meets-marc-almond\/\",\"name\":\"Dave Ball Meets Marc Almond\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/dave-ball-meets-marc-almond\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/dave-ball-meets-marc-almond\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/David_Ball_of_Soft_Cell_1983-enhanced.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-25T16:08:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-04T16:31:15+00:00\",\"description\":\"Dave Ball, born in Chester and raised in Blackpool, is a pioneering English producer and electronic musician, best known for his work with Soft Cell and The Grid. 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