: It's not often that a relative unknown gets a major shot at stardom as the opening act on a bill shared with the likes of "Iron Maiden" and "Dio." But such is the case with newcomers "Dirty Deeds," who after a number of years playing local clubs throughout London, fell almost accidentally upon a bit of good fortune in the form of Maiden's Steve Harris. After hearing the band's live material, they quickly became good friends and subsequently Beast Records was born. "Dirty Deeds" bassist, Tony Newton, proceeds to take up the story involving their meeting: "Actually we both play football (soccer) and I joined a team which happened to already include Steve."

They soon learned they both had similar interests, inclusive of musical tastes, and of course the bass guitar, and it wasn't long before Harris basically took the band under his wing. "Every time we played in London he'd come and offer suggestions and eventually we were asked to fill in as support during their X-Factor tour a couple of years ago." Tony adds, He said if you want to do it, just get yourself to Sicily and pick up the tour bus and you're on it." And so it happened that quickly.

At the time, "Dirty Deeds" was still an unknown to the rest of the world, and had not even completed work on an album! Tony goes on to explain, "At that point, we hadn't even recorded an album yet, and Steve had decided that he'd always wanted to do his own label." So as it turned out, "Dirty Deeds" and Beast records would merge cohesively as a unit, each of which likely being non-existent without the other.

Being the first act signed to the new label certainly has its advantages, as the added exposure from their current tour clearly portrays, and which for them has worked so far in reverse order having previously played in front of tens of thousands in European festivals and slowly scaling down to lesser sized venues as the differing markets dictate. Regardless, Newton is quick to offer an abundance of thanks and praise to those involved in making the marriage work adding, "It's unheard of for an unknown band. . .normally you begin with a club tour and ascend from there; and it's all thanks to Steve and Rod (Smallwood - manager) who've had faith in us for years." And that faith appears to be paying quick dividends as the band has been met with resounding approval everywhere they've appeared.

Where it would be understandable for some bands to own a feeling of disappointment at the prospect of earlier playing in front of thousands, and to later embark on a tour which reasonably pales in comparison, no such feeling exists in the mind of Tony and the band. With a tone which rings as nothing less than humble, he goes on to discuss how for them, playing live consists of much more than a numbers game, as the obvious differences of doing a metal show in the states could indicate a decline in attendance: "We were told before we came out 'you're an unknown band, don't expect to get the reactions you get in Europe and stuff.' But we have gotten a good reaction every night, and its been fantastic for us. Every night we've got to prove ourselves, no one knows who we are - they think we're an "AC/DC" tribute band." In fact they are not, and judging from the crowd response and the solid material on their stand out new release, "Danger Of Infection," with another U.S. tour to follow, the perceived ambiguity that currently surrounds them should quickly become a distant memory.