India, Oct. 23 -- Dave Ball, one-half of the famous synth-pop group Soft Cell, has died at the age of 66. His bandmate Marc Almond confirmed that Ball passed away peacefully in his sleep at his London home on October 21. The news came just a few weeks after their last performance together at England's Rewind Festival.

Marc wrote a long message on social media, saying it was "hard to even process" that Dave was gone. He wrote, "Iit is with the greatest sadness that the other half of Soft Cell, the wonderful brilliant musical genius David Ball, died peacefully in his sleep on Tuesday night. As many of you are aware, Dave has been ill for a long while and his health had been in slow decline over recent years."

Dave Ball had been suffering ...