Soft Cell star Dave Ball left huge seven-figure sum for his four children after death aged 66 last year

Credit: Redferns SOFT Cell founder Dave Ball left a £2.5million final gift in his will, The Sun can reveal. The synth music pioneer, who died last October aged 66, passed the sum to his four children. Ball was instrumental in Soft Cell and helped arrange hit track Tainted Love Credit: Getty Images Dave (right) with Soft Cell singer Marc Almond in 1982 Credit: Rex Documents seen by The Sun show Ball left £3,359,276 in his estate, which was reduced to £2,516,485 after taxes, debts and costs were removed. His will was signed in December 2022 and a grant was issued by the High Court earlier this week. Sign up for the Showbiz newsletter Thank you! The fortune was split between his four children, with son James and daughter Victoria each receiving 30 per cent of the estate. Daughter Georgina Alderson and son Elliott Ball were both handed 20 per cent. Read more about Soft Cell In the three-page document, Ball asked to be cremated, and handed a £25,000 legacy to his friend and photographer David Chambers. Ball passed away in his sleep at his London home after battling conditions including a serious back injury, pneumonia and sepsis that left him in an induced coma for seven months. He had performed with Soft Cell at the Rewind Festival just weeks before his death, playing to 20,000 fans from a wheelchair. Forming in the late 1970s, Ball and singer Marc Almond became pioneers of synth pop and shot to fame with their electronic cover of Gloria Jones’s Tainted Love. Most read in Showbiz The track became an instant hit and helped their debut album, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, go platinum in the UK. It was the first of five UK Top 10 hits in a row, including Say Hello, Wave Goodbye, Torch and What. Dave and Marc split in 1984 after follow-up album This Last Night in Sodom failed to sell. Ball went on to enjoy a successful run with musician Richard Norris as the house music duo The Grid. They reached the UK Top 30 in 1993 with Crystal Clear and Texas Cowboys. Soft Cell reformed in 2001 for a new album and tour, before playing a final tour in 2018. They reunited for a third and final time in 2021 to mark 40 years since their debut and opened BBC Radio 2’s Live In The Park in September 2023. The pair had just finished work on a sixth and final studio album, Danceteria, days before Ball’s death. The album is set for release next month as a tribute to him. Ball married violinist and backing vocalist Gini Hewes, with whom he formed the band Other People after Soft Cell first split, though the couple eventually divorced. He is survived by his four children and Gini who is not referenced in the will. Marc Almond led tributes after his death, saying: “He was a wonderfully brilliant musical genius.” Grid bandmate Richard Norris said being in a duo “is different from being in a band,” recalling their “unwavering friendship” and thanking Ball “for the music.” BMG records president Alistair Norbury called him a pioneer who “proved that emotion and experimentation could coexist.” Soft Cell reunited three times after first breaking up in 1984 Credit: Getty Images Comment now