Sometimes it’s the quiet ones who make the biggest noise. At the age of 15 Dave Ball first encountered a synthesizer, when a neighbour of his grandmother let him play on theirs. “I was fascinated by that: bloody hell, I want one of those…”. In 1977, a chance meeting on his first day at Leeds Polytechnic with a punky-haired second-year Art student in gold lame jeans, and leopard print top called Marc Almond changed both men’s lives forever.

Soft Cell, a duo defined by the dynamic between the dramatically expressive Almond and the quiet but menacing Ball, became one of the defining bands of the 1980s. Post-Soft Cell, Dave became a part-time touring member of Psychic TV, a collaboration which would directly lead to Dave’s next big success. Genesis P-Orridge brought in Dave to play on a pseudo-compilation of Acid House tracks by various fictional sock-puppet acts called Jack The Tab, along with NME writer Richard Norris. Ball and Norris went on to form The Grid in 1988.

For Cold Spring, Dave Ball and Jon Savage created the quasi pop/classical album 'Photosynthesis' in 2016, using vintage analogue sound sources. Dave also appeared on Marc Almond collaborator Anni Hogan's 2019 album for Cold Spring, 'Lost In Blue', playing bass and synth, and producing the album (other collaborators on the album included Wolfgang Flür, Gavin Friday, Lydia Lunch, and Richard Strange). 

In 2022, the first ever release of the soundtrack to the rarely-seen DEREK JARMAN 1984 short film "Imagining October" is released by Cold Spring, with music recorded by Derek's friend and collaborator Genesis P-Orridge (PSYCHIC TV / THROBBING GRISTLE), and Dave Ball (SOFT CELL / THE GRID).