"Once More" is the seventh and final studio album by English new wave band Spandau Ballet, released on October 19, 2009, by Mercury Records. The album features 11 re-recordings from the band's back catalog along with two newly written songs. The first single, the title track "Once More," was released as a promotional single on October 5, 2009, and as a digital download on the same day the album was released. It entered at number seven on the UK Album Chart on October 25, 2009, marking their seventh UK Top 10 album.
As Spandau Ballet was working on their 1989 album Heart Like a Sky, lead guitarist and songwriter Gary Kemp wanted a separate production credit, believing it would be their final album. Heart Like a Sky and its singles performed poorly in the UK, leading the band to record a cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer" to receive payment from their record company. After this, Kemp felt an unspoken acceptance that the band would not be active for the foreseeable future.
Another album seemed unlikely after the band learned that Kemp had stopped distributing publishing royalties to them, a decision upheld by a judge in 1999 after a lawsuit from bandmates Tony Hadley, John Keeble, and Steve Norman. By the late 2000s, Kemp sought to reunite with his bandmates and successfully convinced them to do so. The reunited Spandau Ballet scheduled a tour in October 2009, which included eight stops in the UK and Ireland. The London show sold out quickly, prompting the addition of a second date. The positive response to the tour encouraged the band to work on a new album, choosing to record acoustic versions of their hits. This approach helped ease them into the studio process.
Kemp expressed concerns about creating softer versions of their songs, so they decided to take a darker, more menacing approach to the re-recordings. He shared songwriting credit with Norman on the title track, stating that the new song demonstrated their intent to compete with contemporaries in the pop charts.
Once More was produced by Danton Supple, known for co-producing Coldplay's X&Y album. The album peaked at number 7 during its first of five weeks on the UK Albums Chart, and it also reached number 9 in Scotland, number 17 in Italy, number 30 in Germany, number 34 in Spain, and number 46 in the Netherlands.
