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Soft Cell

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Soft Cell was an English synth-pop duo of the singer Marc Almond and the instrumentalist David Ball. They met in 1977 at art college in Leeds and began making music together a year later. According to Ball they wanted to write catchy but twisted pop songs, in the spirit of Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire, but more melodic. They paid for the first EP, Mutant Moments (1980), with a loan from Ball's mother. Their first single, Memorabilia, caught on in the clubs, but did not make the chart.

Music and breakthrough

The record company gave them one last chance. The duo chose a cover of Tainted Love, an almost forgotten Northern soul song by Gloria Jones. In 1981 their version reached number 1 in seventeen countries, including England. The debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret (1981) followed, with Bedsitter and the ballad Say Hello, Wave Goodbye. Then came Torch and What!, and the albums The Art of Falling Apart (1983) and This Last Night in Sodom (1984). Fame and drugs took their toll, and in 1984 the duo stopped. From 2001 they came back a few times. Ball died in 2025.

Influence

Soft Cell set a soul voice and a sense of drama against cool synthesizers. The lyrics were about nightlife, loneliness and the dark side of the city. Memorabilia is regarded as an early forerunner of techno, and artists such as Pet Shop Boys, Erasure and Nine Inch Nails named the duo as an influence. Tainted Love shows well how synth-pop in the 1980s gave older Black dance music a new, electronic look.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Tainted Love and notice how little there is: an electronic rhythm, a few short synthesizer notes and Almond's vocals. Where a soul band played in the original, here two people with electronics do the work.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: ArtistsSynthpopNorthern soul