Jeffrey Dunn

Guitarist

Popular As Mantas

Birthday April 22, 1961

Birth Sign Taurus

Birthplace Newcastle upon Tyne, England

Age 62 years old

Nationality United Kingdom

#59825 Most Popular

1961

Jeffrey "Mantas" Dunn (born 22 April 1961) is a British guitarist best known as one of the founding members of the heavy metal band Venom, with which he played as a guitarist from 1979 to 1985 and 1989 to 2002.

He currently plays in Venom Inc. alongside fellow former Venom member bassist/vocalist Tony Dolan and drummer Jeramie Kling.

1986

In 1986, Dunn left Venom to form the band Mantas which has recorded two full-length albums, Winds of Change in 1988 and Zero Tolerance in 2004.

1992

In 1992, he played guitars for Warfare, a new wave of British heavy metal band.

2006

In 2006, Mantas toured with German hardcore techno act Scooter in Germany as an additional member on guitar; he admitted being apprehensive about the job, as he wasn't a fan of Scooter's music, but admitted to greatly enjoying the tour.

2007

In 2007, he worked with the band Dryll.

2009

In 2009, he guested on German metalcore band Last One Dying's debut album The Hour of Lead and released the Dryll EP Digital Surgery which was available at live shows only.

2010

In 2010, Dunn and former Venom members Antony "Antton" Lant (drums; brother of Venom frontman Conrad "Cronos" Lant) and Tony "Demolition Man" Dolan (bass, vocals) formed a band, initially called Primevil and then M-pire of Evil.

2015

In 2015, the Venom '89/'90 line-up of Dunn, Dolan and Bray reunited for a concert at the Keep It True festival in Germany, which was the start of what became the band Venom Inc., which released the album Avé in 2017 and toured extensively.

The year after, Bray was replaced by Kling.

2018

In May 2018, Dunn underwent emergency heart surgery (double bypass) in Lisbon following a life-threatening incident.

On August 27, 2023, Jeff announced that his wife is battling cancer.

He stated he will remain beside her “Until a course of treatment is decided by the Oncologist” Jeff stated that he will fulfill the remainder of festivals up until September 3 at which he will cease touring until further notice.

Mantas now uses Caparison guitars.

2019

Dunn played guitar on the track "Hold On" by Scott Michael Cavagan (2019).

2020

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in early 2020, Dunn became active on the social media platform Facebook, releasing tutorial videos of how to play many Venom and Venom Inc. songs.

This later developed into livestreams, usually twice a week (Monday and Friday nights), first on his private Facebook page, later on his official Jeff Mantas Dunn page.

These livestreams transmissions are referred to as "GRTV", an in-joke that started off due to a glitch that repeatedly stated "Gareth Richards is watching".

In February 2021, Dunn launched a Jeff Mantas page on Patreon.

25% of the profits goes to a local cat and dog sanctuary and his own cat sanctuary, both in Portugal, where Dunn currently resides.