Nomad - (I Wanna Give You) Devotion (12" Original Mix)

Nomad feat MC Mikee Freedom - (I Wanna Give You) Devotion (Original Mix) / 12 Inch Extended Remix (HQ Audio)

Nomad was the project of former Record Mirror journalist Damon Rochefort (Nomad is Damon spelled backward).

For this track, he brought in three collaborators: songwriter Steve McCutcheon, rapper MC Mikee Freedom, and vocalist Sharon Dee Clarke.

"I'd met so many artists and producers," Rochefort recalls, "and just thought, this doesn't look too difficult - maybe I'll have a go myself!"

By the time he put Nomad together, Rochefort had been making music for three years, but his previous tracks hadn’t seen chart success (one featured Prince Charles impersonations by Steve Coogan).

After producing Nomad tracks, Rochefort was hired to produce for Kim Wilde, Bad Boys Inc, Michelle Gayle, and La Toya Jackson before leaving the music industry to become a scriptwriter for British TV shows, including Birds of a Feather and Coronation Street.

For Steve McCutcheon, (I Wanna Give You) Devotion was the first of many songwriting credits in an illustrious career.

He joined the dance act Undercover in the mid-90s and had hits with Baker Street and Never Let Her Slip Away.

Since then, he has written for Ed Sheeran, Melanie C, P!nk, Westlife, and Little Mix, while his studio has produced hits for Calvin Harris, One Direction, Leona Lewis, and Rita Ora, among others.

In 2018, he won the Brit Award for British Producer of the Year and was named Songwriter of the Year at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards in Los Angeles. He also co-wrote Ed Sheeran's Shape Of You, which won a Grammy award.

Singer Sharon Dee Clarke also has a rich, varied and successful career. Before singing the lead line in this track, she was vocalist on the 1989 Italo house hit Rich in Paradise (Going Back to My Roots) by FPI Project.

As an actor, she is a three-time Olivier Award winner, best known for playing Lola Griffin in the BBC drama Holby City and Grace O'Brien in Doctor Who, and has an even longer career in West End theatre, appearing in Rent at the Shaftesbury Theatre and The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre.

She originated the role of Killer Queen in We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre, and was awarded an MBE for services to drama in 2017.

A final, and key piece of the Nomad jigsaw is MC Mikee Freedom, a rapper from the Bristol scene whom Rochefort had heard and liked, and invited to be a part of the track.

"I had the rap already written for a hip-hop track," he says. "When we got to the studio, I ad-libbed the beginning part to fit in with the track, and that was it. I was there for about 10 minutes!"

All four contributors felt the track would do well in clubs, but none foresaw the level of commercial success it would achieve.

"(I Wanna Give You) Devotion" was released in the UK in November 1990 and climbed to number two, with the band performing it twice on Top of the Pops. It reached number one in 26 other countries.

Follow-up single Just a Groove was also a success, reaching number 16, though this was the last time Nomad would appear in the UK charts.

Featured here is the full-length original mix from the first UK 12", which also includes an instrumental version and an additional track, Sang-Froid.

A second 12" also exists, featuring remixes by Joey Negro.

Year: 1990 Label: Rumour Records Cat no: RUMAT25