voc, *1965 GB, Cardiff
Producer of Dance
A.k.a. Devotion (10) DJ's Friend Emm & Emm Nomad Soul (2) Original Sin The Candy Man
Damon Rochefort started his writing career as a columnist on Black music trade bible ‘Blues & Soul’ before graduating to ‘Smash Hits’ and The Sun’s Bizarre column at the age of 18 Pursuing his love of black music he then became a songwriter and record producer eventually hitting the big time in 1991 with the international No.1 hit ‘I Wanna Give You Devotion’ by Nomad (Damon backwards) Touring the world as a bona fide pop star (i.e. he couldn’t play any instruments), Rochefort went on to write and produce for other acts including Elton John, Ru Paul, Bad Boys Inc. Michelle Gayle and Kim Wilde before meeting Alomo’s Marks & Gran at a sitcom workshop After writing various episodes of ‘Birds Of A Feather’, Rochefort concentrated on creating original shows including ‘Boyz R Us’ for the BBC – a show about a boy band and its manipulative manager, something Rochefort knew quite a lot about – ‘The Bad Old Days’ - about a turn-of-the century music hall, - and ‘Last Gasp’ also with the BBC Concurrently, Rochefort was presenting on TV too; ITV’s network dance show BPM for two years and more recently his own live chat show – which he also wrote - on BBC Wales, the award-winning ‘Damon Rochefort Tonight’ (tapes available) Rochefort wrote his first theatrical piece ‘Live At Carnegie Hall’ in association with The Royal Ballet, a tribute to Judy Garland which premiered at The Royal Opera House and toured the US and Australia. He has also written around 200 episodes of Coronation Street, including landmark episodes such as Deirdre Barlow's funeral and the aftermath of the 50th anniversary's live tram crash which he is still writing for in 2018.