Former AC/DC bassist Mark Evans has written Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside/Outside AC/DC, the first insider account of the Bon Scott era of the band. This "honest and comical look at AC/DC's rise to the upper echelons of hard rock" is coming in November 2011 in North America from Bazillion Points Books, and currently available for pre-order with a limited color metal badge.

On August 17, former AC/DC bassist Mark Evans made an appearance at Berkelouw Books in Newtown (Sydney), Australia on August 17th to discuss the new book. Check out the footage below:

MusicRadar sat down with Evans recently to talk about his new book, his memories of playing with AC/DC, what the late Bon Scott was really like and how he came to grips with being tossed out of one rock's biggest acts just as they were on the threshold of greatness. An excerpt from the interview follows:

Q: When you first met Angus Young and Bon Scott, did you think they had what it took to make it?

A: "As I mentioned in the book, I didn't meet Bon initially; I first met Angus, Malcolm and Phil Rudd, the drummer. I had been given the band's first record to learn for my audition. I'll tell you, once the gear was set up and I heard those guitars live right next to me, it was like the biggest light bulb in the world went off over my head. I just knew this was going to work and that I was in the right place. What a sound! I knew Bon a little bit before I got in AC/DC. He was something of a pop star in Australia. He was in one band, THE VALENTINES, and they were kind of bubblegum, but his next group, FRATERNITY, was more like THE BAND – he really liked rootsy music like that. Bon was a lot older than me, but we got along great. He was a star waiting to happen. As soon as I was in a room with everybody, I had a feeling it could go over big. In fact, I was sure it would. Bon was a real character, and when you put him up against those guitars, it was electric."

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(Photo: Jorgen Angel)

The young AC/DC's merciless approach to playing rock 'n roll music is laid bare during the making of 1977's Let There Be Rock LP, as Evans writes: "Recording what was to become Let There Be Rock necessitated the same 'hothouse' conditions as T.N.T. and Dirty Deeds: get in there and get it done, today. As with all the AC/DC recordings with which I was involved, we were working to a tight schedule. Two weeks to write, arrange and record an album. It was a mammoth effort by Bon Scott and Malcolm and Angus Young to put the material together in such a short time. We had a week and a bit to get the backing tracks down, the same time for the vocals, solos and any patching up that was necessary. The studio drill was really an extension of the band live: cut the crap and get on with it. I was bloody lucky. I was getting an amazing inside view on how to put a rock-and-roll record together, and in a fuckin' hurry, too."

"The high point of the recording was the title track, 'Let There Be Rock.' That's an epic, with drummer Phil Rudd going flat to the boards for the entire six-plus minutes. Watching him cut that one in the studio was amazing. He was set up in the back left-hand corner of the piano room, opposite the wall with all the graffiti, and he just went for it. We did a couple of takes in a row, with just a quick breather between the two, a minute at the most, and away we went again. It's my recollection that we used the second of those two takes. The pressure was really on to deliver a great AC/DC album. And Let There Be Rock was the sound of us stepping up. A hell of a lot had happened to AC/DC since recording Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. All that touring had changed us. Our new back line of Marshall gear gave the band more muscle; we sounded more aggressive, meaner-and definitely louder. There was more of an edge to the sound; it was a bigger, badder AC/DC. It's still one of my favorite AC/DC albums, just behind Powerage and my all-time favorite, Highway To Hell."

Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside/Outside Of AC/DC, is the first bio written by a band insider during AC/DC's early years, a true-to-life storybook of the struggles and camaraderie that fueled the rise of hard rock's most successful group. Mark Evans provides the first-ever street level view of Malcolm Young, Angus Young, Phil Rudd, and the late Bon Scott, in stories involving such rock and roll icons as GEORGE HARRISON, GENE SIMMONS, PHIL LYNOTT, BLACK SABBATH, ROSE TATTOO, AHMET ERTEGUN and METALLICA.