How Original VENOM Guitarist JEFF 'MANTAS' DUNN Ended Up Playing With German Techno Group SCOOTER

At last month's Bloodstock Open Air festival, original VENOM and current VENOM INC. guitarist Jeff "Mantas" Dunn reflected on his brief 2006 stint with the German techno group SCOOTER as the band's live guitarist. Regarding how he landed the gig, he told Serena Fox of TotalRock (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "In 2005 I had German management and I had a band called DRILL. So I was talking to the management one day and they said, 'Oh, we've got a request.' And I [went], 'Okay. What's this?' And they went, 'SCOOTER want you as their live guitarist.' And I went, 'Who the fuck are SCOOTER?' I had no idea. Now, at this point, I had a martial arts gym in Newcastle; I was a professional instructor for 25 years. So one of the guys who used to teach for me, he used to play this song when he used to do the fitness classes, and it turns out that this song was 'Fire' by SCOOTER. I used to come out of the office and go, 'Paul, for fuck's sake, will you turn that shit off?' And that was one of the songs I ended up playing live with them.

"The thing was when I got asked to do it, every fiber of my being was going, 'Nooooooo.' But I'll tell you what — it was one of the best times I've ever had," he admitted. "We started in Hannover. Every gig was a stadium. Then we did all the huge European dance festivals, and we ended up in Ulaanbaatar, in Mongolia, in a football stadium."

Mantas went on to say that the members of SCOOTER were "the nicest guys. And the lineup of SCOOTER at that point, which was H.P. [Baxxter], Rick [J. Jordan] and Jay [Frog], they were all rock fans," he revealed. "We were sitting at dinner one night, and I went, 'So you're rock fans, really.' I mean, they loved IRON MAIDEN and [JUDAS] PRIEST and stuff. And I went, 'So what the fuck went wrong?' But it was great. They had rockets firing up. So I had the whole Ace Frehley trip, I had the whole thing going on. It was like firing rockets off the guitar. The stage show was amazing. It was a great time. A great time. And you know what? As the tour went along, there was more and more metalheads in the audience."

Joining Dunn in the current lineup of VENOM INC. are ex-VENOM bassist/vocalist Tony "Demolition Man" Dolan and drummer Jeramie Kling, who joined the band in 2018.

VENOM INC. will release its sophomore album, "There's Only Black", on September 23 via Nuclear Blast Records. The follow-up to 2017's "Avé" marks the second recording under the name VENOM INC., while Dunn and Dolan have a long history as recording artists together in VENOM, M:PIRE OF EVIL and Mantas solo projects.

Dunn, Dolan and drummer Anthony "Abaddon" Bray released three albums as VENOM between 1989 and 1992 — "Prime Evil" (1989),"Temples Of Ice" (1991) and "The Waste Lands" (1992).

VENOM INC. is not to be confused with the Conrad "Cronos" Lant-fronted version of VENOM, which is continuing to tour and make albums under the VENOM moniker. Joining Cronos in that group are Rage (a.k.a. Stuart Dixon) on guitar and Danté (a.k.a. Danny Needham) on drums.