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 [l=Chrysalis]-owned label [l=Cooltempo] under [a=Ken Grunbaum] where he promoted releases by American house artists such as [a=Adeva], [a=Tribal House] and [a=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 [a=Steve McCutcheon] aka [a=Steve Mac (2)], credited on some releases as [a=Touchdown Productions]. In his A&R role Dunmore pushed Cooltempo in a more house-orientated direction with acts such as [a=Juliet Roberts] and the [a=Zoo Experience] and, notably, a partnership with New York-based label [l=Strictly Rhythm] from which he licensed records by [a=Aly-Us], [a=Djaimin], [a=The Boss] and [a=River Ocean]. In 1994 he was offered the chance by [l=A&M Records] to develop their dance imprint, [l=A&M PM], which was relaunched as [l=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, [l=Defected], with funding from the Ministry Of Sound. Dunmore was Director of [l=Defected Records Ltd.] from 1999 until July 2022 when he sold the company to former MD [a=Wez Saunders]. Father of Louie and Lucas Dunmore aka [a=Dunmore Brothers].