Photos: Soft Cell Release RAINBOW ROOM Ballad Ahead of Fall 2026 US Tour

Electronic music duo SOFT CELL, singer and frontman Marc Almond and multi-instrumentalist and producer Dave Ball, have released 'The Rainbow Room,' a moving ballad set in early 80s New York and taken from the forthcoming new album Danceteria. This will be Soft Cell's sixth and final studio album, set for release in two weeks' time on September 25, 2026 via Republic of Music.

Photo Credit: Mike Owen (hi-res)

Released digitally on all platforms today, 'The Rainbow Room' is a stunning atmospheric electronic song paying homage to love, loss and friendship, all wrapped up in an extraordinary moment with vistas to match. Marc talks about the semi-autobiographical nature of 'The Rainbow Room,' taken from August's cover feature interview with John Earls at Classic Pop:

'And I did celebrate my birthday - my 21st or 22nd - at The Rainbow Room in the Rockefeller Center... The story of that view is true, too, I really did think: 'Imagine falling down there' at the time. It was important to mention the Twin Towers, to acknowledge that this song about the future had a poignancy to it, knowing how dark that future would become.'

'The Rainbow Room' continues to showcase the heavier, moodier side of forthcoming new album 'Danceteria', following on from the previous track 'The Space Inside' and its majestic vocals from Marc Almond and epic ravey synths from Dave Ball.

Videos have also been released for second single 'In Heaven (When I Dance With You)' and first single 'Danceteria,' both created by Vicki Bennett.

Danceteria is described as a big, classy and playful farewell to 47 years of Marc and Dave making music as Soft Cell and features career-defining performances from the pair. The record has been picking up press acclaim, including a five page exclusive interview for the UK's The Sunday Times Magazine and an extensive cover feature for September's Electronic Sound covering 16 pages and offering a covermount exclusive 7' single.

Reminiscent of Sparks, Pet Shop Boys and with lyrics Lady Gaga would kill for, 'Danceteria' takes you on a vivid journey through a day in early 80s New York, bouncing round the clock from night to bleary daybreak and headlong back into the club. The 12-track album is available to pre-order now on vinyl and CD, with the CD expanding to 14 tracks including 2 bonus tracks in form of 'Crackland' and 'What Is Your Morality.'

Marc provides a snapshot into the album:

'Danceteria is a love letter to New York in the early 80s. The time we spent in New York - where we recorded our first 3 albums - shaped us both as artists and people. To celebrate this period is a fitting farewell to Dave Ball and the final Soft Cell studio album.'

Danceteria is equally a tribute to the late Dave Ball, who passed away on October 22, 2025, with the album being one of the last bodies of work Ball co-wrote and produced before his death. Almond led the obituaries, describing Dave as a 'brilliant musical genius.' The world's media followed, hailing him as an electronic music pioneer, plus music stars including Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe from the Pet Shop Boys, Mute Records' Daniel Miller, Cabaret Voltaire and Richard Norris from Dave's techno duo The Grid contributing an outpouring of elegiac praise. Dave finished Danceteria two days before he passed away and it is in full tribute to him that the album release went ahead as planned.

'There can be no more recordings of Soft Cell without Dave,' explained Almond. 'The sad reality is that Dave Ball was half of Soft Cell, and live work aside, I can't write Soft Cell songs without him.'

Soft Cell and Marc Almond live dates

Marc Almond has announced another live run, this time in South America in late November to December. Prior to that, Marc will be playing more European shows in Italy and Poland from late September to October. In early November, Marc returns to the States for a second time this year and will be touring as Soft Cell. All kicks off on November 8th in San Diego and takes in Darker Waves festival in California on November 14th. Full listings and ticket links are available here.

Tour Dates

Nov 8 San Diego, CA The Magnolia

Nov 10 Napa, CA Uptown Theatre

Nov 11 San Francisco, CA The Regency Ballroom

Nov 13 Reno, NV Grand Sierra Resort/Casino

Nov 14 Huntington Beach, CA Darker Waves

Nov 15 San Luis Obispo, CA Fremont Theater

The New York club scene of the early '80s was a rich source of inspiration for the visiting British bands who had broken through in the aftermath of the UK's punk and post-punk explosion. But no group immersed themselves in the city's vibrant underground culture – or its hedonistic spirit and seedy underbelly – quite like Soft Cell. The white-hot fervor of Manhattan's downtown clubs and the buzz of New York FM radio provided inspiration for the likes of New Order (on 'Blue Monday') and Simple Minds (on 'Promised You A Miracle'), but the real trailblazers were Soft Cell.

Singer Marc Almond and multi-instrumentalist and producer Dave Ball made their first two full-length albums, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret and The Art Of Falling Apart, plus one of the first remix albums Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing at Mediasound in Hell's Kitchen, the studio where T. Rex recorded 'Jeepster.' The duo launched Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret by throwing a wild party with a Times Square theme ('peep booths and adult performers') at the Danceteria nightclub. They drank margaritas in the Rainbow Room, met Andy Warhol at the Factory and danced alongside a young Madonna.

Manhattan was where Marc and Dave went looking for kicks. But it was also the place where they came of age as musicians and individuals, and those pivotal themes are the building blocks for the sixth – and, sadly, final – Soft Cell album. Named after the fabled three-story nightclub that opened in 1980 in an old industrial building on West 21st Street, Danceteria is a love letter to 1980s New York. It explores the duo's experiences in the City, soundtracking the course of a symbolic night out that begins and ends on the dance floor and takes some darker and more enigmatic turns along the way. Like all the best Soft Cell records, it's a series of narratives, with Dave's cinematic soundscapes in perfect harmony with Marc's characteristically vivid storytelling.

With Dave Ball's untimely passing in October 2025, aged 66, the new album is a testimony to his arranging skills and innovative production talent. The album's final mixes were completed just two days before his death, and only two months after his last live appearance with Soft Cell, when the band headlined the UK's Rewind Festival in Henley-On-Thames in front of over 20,000 fans.

'Dave was a wonderfully brilliant musical genius,' says Marc. 'And I take some solace from the fact that he heard the finished record before he died. He knew it was a great piece of work, and the tunes and hooks are unmistakably Soft Cell. The moment I received the music files from him, it was immediately clear that these songs were among the best he'd ever made. I was stoked and excited, and that helped with my lyrics. When we played Rewind, we talked backstage about how excited we were about this record. Our previous album, *Happiness not included, was made during the pandemic. I had Covid quite badly, and it affected my voice and breathing. Dave and I could only communicate with each other through emails and texts. We were more connected on this one.'

Once Marc had received the instrumental music from Dave's South London studio, he wrote lyrics and decamped to Dean Street Studios in Soho for some 'very vibey' recording sessions with his vocal engineer Jonny Solway and regular backing vocalists Louise Marshall, Bryan Chambers and Simon King. Another key contributor was Soft Cell's touring keyboardist Philip Larsen. A Grammy-winning mixer who co-produced the band's previous album four years ago, Larsen worked with Dave and Marc as the new record neared completion, again co-producing with Soft Cell.

Danceteria is bookended by two floor-filling pop bangers – the title track and 'Out Come the Freaks.' Following on from the spoken words and smoky, ambient electronics of 'Elusive,' the title track is a big, euphoric dance number that reflects the hedonistic spirit of the Manhattan clubs where fabulous fashionistas rubbed shoulders with scene-setters. Among their number were Andy Warhol, Madonna, the artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, singer Cindy Ecstasy and the DJ Mark Kamins. The album finishes with a joyous, righteous cover of 'Out Come The Freaks,' a mutant disco classic originally released in 1981 by the influential Detroit funk-rock band Was (Not Was). Soft Cell's cover, with Dave on vocals, also features a cameo from Nona Hendryx, once of Labelle and another former Danceteria regular.

Says Marc: 'Cover versions have always been part and parcel of Soft Cell, and I wanted this record to contain echoes of our debut album. 'Out Come The Freaks' was a single on ZE, and I used to play it when I DJed in the 80s. I'd also wanted to do something with Nona for a very long time. She's a good friend, but we'd never found the right song – until now. We had finished making 'Out Come The Freaks', so I sent it to her with a message saying that she could do anything she wanted on it. She took her backing singers into a studio and just sang, adding her own improvisations. She sounds absolutely fantastic.'

There are further up-tempo moments in 'Wave To America' – a star-spangled account of the United States reimagined as a kaleidoscopic journey through iconic images – and 'In Heaven (When I Dance With You),' an unashamed homage to northern soul, one of Dave's key influences. The latter is an original song, but it stands solidly in the tradition of Soft Cell's classic soul covers, from their celebrated take on Ed Cobb's 'Tainted Love' (the UK's biggest-selling single of 1981) to 1982's 'What!' (originally by Judy Street) and 2002's 'The Night' (a hit for Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons).

In time-honored Soft Cell style, the bangers sit alongside moodier ballads and more reflective moments. On 'The Space Inside,' listeners are transported to the leather bars and transgender sex clubs of Manhattan's Meatpacking District, where the city's night owls find themselves 'searching for redemption in the night's decay'. 'Times Square' is a mischievous account of an afternoon hook-up in a B-movie cinema, and the shimmering ballad 'The Rainbow Room' offers a blow-by-blow account of Marc's visit to the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. 'Losing Yourself' and 'After Hours' delve into the darkness that often lurks beyond the dance floor.

'The 'Danceteria' album reflects what we were going through as Brits in New York,' concludes Marc. 'We arrived there in 1981 with a bunch of songs that were initially written about London and Leeds. They were songs that reflected the greyness and repression of Margaret Thatcher's Britain. But once we hit New York, the same songs became infused with a fresh, streetwise sensibility. We were in the clubs, where ecstasy was available for the first time, and we felt privileged to be part of that secret. Our music took on a hybrid quality. We were quintessentially British, but we felt that we were also an honorary American band. So it feels right that the last Soft Cell album is invested in those myths and stories. It brings everything full circle for us, and it's a fitting tribute to Dave.'

Tracklist

Vinyl - Side A:

1) Elusive (Vinyl Edit)

2) Danceteria

3) The Space Inside (Vinyl Edit)

4) Times Square (Vinyl Edit)

5) Two Of A Kind

6) The Rainbow Room (Vinyl Edit)

7) In Heaven (When I Dance With You)

Vinyl - Side B:

1) Decadence Is Hard Work

2) Losing Yourself

3) After Hours

4) Wave To America

5) Out Come The Freaks

CD:

1) Elusive

2) Danceteria

3) The Space Inside

4) Times Square

5) Two Of A Kind

6) The Rainbow Room

7) In Heaven (When I Dance With You)

8) Decadence Is Hard Work

9) Crackland

10) What Is Your Morality

11) Losing Yourself

12) After Hours

13) Wave To America

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