WHERE ARE THEY NOW? One Dove

Their biggest single was “Breakdown”, but did it lead to One Dove’s eventual breakdown?

Scottish band One Dove formed in 1990 of Ian Carmichael (b.1960), formerly of The Orchids, Dot Allison (b.1969) and former Altered Images guitarist Jim McKinven. The band signed to Soma Records as Dove and released their debut single, “Fallen”, in October 1991, but soon changed their name to One Dove to avoid confusion with The Doves. “Fallen” was reissued under their new name with different production, but this was soon withdrawn when it was found that an unlicenced sample had been used. One Dove pressed on into 1992 with “Transient Truth” but both this and “Fallen” were not commercially successful. One Dove spent most of 1992 and into 1993 in the studio writing and recording their first album and that Summer saw a brand new song, “White Love”, released.

“White Love” did see a degree of attention and made it as far as No.43 on the UK singles chart with plenty of radio promotion to back it up. One Dove finally broke into the top 40 that Autum with the single “Breakdown” which entered and peaked at No.24. The band promoted the track on Top Of The Pops, which would ultimately become their one and only appearance. “Breakdown” dropped down the following week. The album, “Morning Dove White”, followed soon after and would chart at No.30 and was highlighted by The Face magazine as one of the ten best albums of 1993. One Dove released one further single, “Why Don’t You Take Me?”, from the album at the end of 1993 before moving on to something else. “Why Don’t You Take Me?” would peak at No.30. One Dove began writing new material almost immediately but this would never see the light of day and by 1995 had made the decision to separate citing “record industry politics” as the reason for not continuing.

To this day the members of One Dove have shown no signs of a reunion as the 30th anniversary of their most successful season fast approaches. Dot forged a solo career that would produce a number of singles and so far, eight albums, the most recent being “Heart-Shaped Scars” in 2021. She has also been a prolific songwriter writing for Paul Weller, Death In Vegas, Massive Attack and many other artists. Ian Carmichael formed the band Lamb in 1995 and recorded two albums with them before disbanding and becoming a noted producer ever since. The Orchids reformed in 2007 and released the album “Good To Be A Stranger”. Little is known about Jim McKinven since One Dove parted and he has not been part of the recent Altered Images reunion that has resulted in a brand new album, “Mascara Streakz“, in 2022.