Charlie Dore
(born 1956, Pinner, Middlesex, England) is a respected English songwriter who originally trained as an actress, and is best known for her 1979 hit, "Pilot of the Airwaves", which reached number 13 on the U.S. chart. [1]
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CHARLIE DORE TICKETS
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Career
Dore is most famous in the
United States for her 1979
single, "Pilot of the Airwaves," but is also known in
Europe for her 1995
album,
Things Change
.
She was a
drama student in
Newcastle, and appeared on the
TV show
Rainbow
in the first two seasons as part of a trio of singers, but then dabbled in
music. Her 1977
country influenced
band Prairie Oyster (not to be confused with the
Canadian outfit,
of the same name) included
Pick Withers on
drums, who was also playing with the early
Dire Straits, at that time playing the same
UK pub circuit.
The band evolved through various personnel changes into Charlie Dore's Back Pocket (
guitarist Julian Littman having since become a long-time songwriting collaborator).
When the band broke up, despite attracting interest from
Island Records, Dore was signed as a
solo act.
Her first album,
Where To Now
, recorded both in
Nashville,
Tennessee and in
London, was released in 1979. It was
produced by
The Shadows'
Bruce Welch and songwriter
Alan Tarney, with
session musicians such as
Sonny Curtis.
It resulted in her being voted 'Best New Female Singer' by
Record World
magazine.
The album peaked at number 145 in the
Billboard 200 album chart.
[2] The first single "Fear Of Flying" failed to make a commercial impact, although it was a major 'turntable hit', but "Pilot of the Airwaves" charted on both sides of the
Atlantic and received extensive
airplay.
It reached number 13 on the
U.S. charts, and number 66 in the
UK Singles Chart.
[3]
Much later, "Pilot of the Airwaves" was the final track played by
Radio Caroline on 5 November 1990 as an unlicensed
offshore radio station.
[4] Dore signed to
Chrysalis Records in 1981 and released
Listen!
, but unable to capitalize on her early success, focused her varied talents on songwriting and acting.
As well as
repertory work with
Michael Bogdanov, she co-starred with
Jonathan Pryce and
Tim Curry in
Richard Eyre's award-winning 1983
film,
The Ploughman's Lunch
.
[5] Dore also appeared in several
television series, including
Hard Cases
(playing in a band with the former
Cockney Rebel drummer,
Stuart Elliott) and
South Of The Border
.
She is also a founder member of the London-based comedy improvisation team the Hurricane Club.
However, her songwriting career also took off, as she penned
hits for
Tina Turner,
Celine Dion,
Barry Manilow,
Sheena Easton, and other best-selling artists. Following a return to the
recording studio, she worked with Julian Littman, Danny Schogger,
Ricky Fataar and
Paul Carrack on a collection of new material, and released
Things Change
in 1995.
An
Italian production team, Souled Out heard her track "Time Goes By" and
remixed it into a
dance track that went big in
European dance markets. With the success of the single, Dore found herself doing
vocals on more
electronic music based
songs.
[6] She has appeared on tracks for
Slacker and collaborations with Simon Rodgers.
Dore maintained her writing partnership with Littman on compositions for the
soundtrack to the
BBC One television drama,
Two Thousand Acres of Sky
and
Roman Road
.
The duo also collaborated on Dore's fourth album,
Sleep All Day and Other Stories
, released at the start of 2005.
Dore's most recent release,
Cuckoo Hill
, appeared on the Black Ink Music
record label, and was released in July 2006.
[7]
However, she remains on the list of
one-hit wonders.
Songwriting credits
- "Ain't No Doubt" (Jimmy Nail, Guy Pratt, Danny Schogger and Charlie Dore) - Jimmy Nail - 1992
- "Eleven Out of Ten" (Niclas Molinder, Joacim Persson, Pelle Ankarberg, Charlie Dore) - No Angels - 2003
- "Fear of Flying" (Charlie Dore) - Kikki Danielsson - 1981
- "Feelgood Lies" (Niclas Molinder, Joacim Persson, Pelle Ankarberg, Charlie Dore, Maryann Morgan) - No Angels - 2003
- "Jam Side Down" (Terry Britten, Charlie Dore) - Status Quo - 2002
- "Looking For My Own Lone Ranger" - (Ricky Ross, Charlie Dore) - Ricky Ross - 2002
- "Northern Soul" (Ricky Ross, Charlie Dore) - Ricky Ross - 2002
- "Rain, Tax (It's Inevitable)" (Terry Britten, Charlie Dore) - Celine Dion - 2002
- "Refuse to Dance" (Charlie Dore, Danny Schogger) - Celine Dion - 1993
- "Strut" (Charlie Dore and Julian Littman) - Sheena Easton - 1984
See also
- List of 1980s one-hit wonders in the United States
- Musikladen
References
- "The Encyclopedia of Popular Music" by Colin Larkin @ Oldies.com
- Allmusic.com - charts & awards
- British Hit Singles & Albums
-
Offshoreechos.com
- IMDb.com database
- Allmusic.com - biography by Diana Potts
- Allmusic.com - discography