Dave Ball, who has died aged 66, was the keyboards man in Soft Cell, the synthpop duo who took the early Eighties pop scene by storm, proving that music made with machines could be as full of emotion ...

Dave Ball, a producer and half of the English synth-pop duo Soft Cell, whose 1981 single “Tainted Love” became one of the defining hits of the new wave era, has died at his home in London.