She later appeared in several shows directed by Michael Bogdanov, including a rock musical version of the Bacchae, Orgy by Cecil Taylor, Oh, What a Lovely War!, and Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw.
Moving back to London, Dore worked in fringe theatre, then joined Thames TV's long-running series Rainbow for 18 months, writing and performing songs with Julian Littman, whom she had met at drama school, and Karl Johnson, an actor-musician from the Tyneside Theatre Company before being replaced by the more familiar ensemble of Rod Burton, Matthew Corbett and Jane Tucker which evolved into Rod, Jane and Freddy.
A friend, blues guitarist Sam Mitchell, asked Dore to deputise for him at Obelisk, a Westbourne Grove pancake house where he played on Monday nights.
During this period the band personnel was still changing and included, among others, Charlie Gaisford, Ian McCann, Keith Nelson, Gus York, Garrick Dewar, Paul Atkinson and Pick Withers on drums, who was also playing with the early Dire Straits.
[2] Dore continued to work with Littman, her guitarist and co-writer, and the first album, Where to Now, featured many favoured session musicians, including Charlie McCoy, Reggie Young, Sonny Curtis, and David Briggs.
[3] In 1983, she starred opposite Jonathan Pryce and Tim Curry In Richard Eyre's film, The Ploughman's Lunch,[2] and during the 1980s more acting work followed, including leading roles in A Killing on the Exchange (1987) and Hard Cases (1989)[2] for ITV, South of the Border (1988)[2] for BBC, and two productions, Whistle Stop and The Big Sweep with People Show, the UK's longest running fringe theatre group.
[3] During this time she started to have success as a writer for other artists, initially scoring a U.S. number 7 hit with "Strut", co-written and co-composed with Littman for Sheena Easton,[2] and going on to have her songs recorded by artists including Tina Turner, George Harrison, Celine Dion, Paul Carrack, Ricky Ross, Worlds Apart, and Jimmy Nail; for whom she co-wrote "Ain't No Doubt", a UK number 1.
[citation needed] The following year saw the release of The Hula Valley Songbook, a collection of American hillbilly, western swing, and popular favourites of the 1930s, based around the set list performed by her first band and originally recorded by artists such as Jimmie Rodgers, Al Bowlly, and Milton Brown.
In October 2009, Dore's cover of "Here Comes the Sun", a Hawaiian reggae version produced with Littman, was included in Mojo magazine's tribute album, Abbey Road Revisited.