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 under
Ken Grunbaum 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, 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.
Father of Louie and Lucas Dunmore aka
Dunmore Brothers.