It was at the beginning of January 2022 that Simon Dunmore made an interesting post on Instagram – which turned out to be even more significant than Ears To The House believed at the time. In it, he announced he was giving up being a touring DJ and talked about spending more time with his family.

What we didn’t know at the time was that 2022 would be the year that Dunmore was to be ejected from the driving seat of the Defected empire which he founded. Let’s be absolutely clear here – for better or worse, Simon Dunmore was one of the last house music giants, having been involved in the record label world since 1989.

Exactly what he does with Defected now is something of a mystery, with one anonymous staffer telling us “It’s a bit weird right now. Simon’s still in the office a fair bit, but he’s not in charge anymore. He mostly advises Wez [Saunders] on A&R these days, which might explain why the music we release hasn’t changed much yet.”.

As for the DJing work, Dunmore officially retired from that in January of this year – doing a series of gigs in Australia, no less. But has Dunmore been getting a case of that modern DJing disease – namely an urge to relentlessly twitch his knobs? Kind of, because he’s signed up to a do a show for London’s Garage City on April 29th…

The more eagle-eyed of you might already have noticed, however, that this is part of the Dance For Stevie fundraiser. As Ears To The House previously reported, Stevie Laviniere was left ravaged after contracting Covid-19 in March 2020. He now requires considerable levels of care, which doesn’t come cheap.

Hence why many names from London and the surrounding areas are taking part in this. We’d say Simon Dunmore gets a pass in this circumstance, wouldn’t you? Tickets are available on Skiddle, by the way…