Simon Dunmore

British DJ and record label executive. A DJ since 1982, Dunmore promoted events in west London and wrote for Blues & Soul magazine before he landed a job, in 1988, at The Record & Disco Centre in Rayners Lane, Pinner. In December 1989 he was offered the role of club promotions manager at Chrysalis-owned label Cooltempo where he promoted releases by American house artists such as Adeva, Tribal House and Urban Soul and commissioned club-friendly remixes for other acts on the label. The Touchdown mixes that featured on a number of Cooltempo releases in this time were by Dunmore himself and engineer Steve McCutcheon aka Steve Mac (2), credited on some releases as Touchdown Productions. In his A&R role Dunmore pushed Cooltempo in a more house-orientated direction with acts such as Juliet Roberts and the Zoo Experience and, notably, a partnership with New York-based label Strictly Rhythm from which he licensed records by Aly-Us, Djaimin, The Boss and River Ocean. In 1994 he was offered the chance by A&M Records to develop their dance imprint, A&M PM, which was relaunched as AM:PM with Dunmore in the A&R role and Janet Bell as club promotions manager. In 1998, with rumours that Universal Music Group planned to buy Polygram and close A&M Records, he took the opportunity, with Bell, to launch his own label, Defected, with funding from the Ministry Of Sound. Dunmore was Director of Defected Records Ltd. from 1999 until July 2022 when he sold the company to former MD Wez Saunders. He continues to work for the label as A&R Consultant. Father of Louie and Lucas Dunmore aka Dunmore Brothers.