Steve Harris will be taking his new solo/side project British Lion out on the road next month visiting fourteen countries and twenty four cities across Europe, starting in Portugal on Feb 21. For the first time ever, and as a major surprise to many, Iron Maiden’s bass player, founder member and leader will be taking temporary leave from his Maiden activities and heading out on a full European Club tour. (full schedule and details below).
Steve comments “I love touring and live shows and I’m very excited about touring with British Lion. It’s fantastic to get out there and once again experience the sheer vibrancy of small clubs with the fans right up front and in your face. I think the fans will enjoy that too. It’s exciting, going back to the roots, and it’s going to be fantastic. We are taking this to clubs all round Europe - a full club tour, with club shows at club prices, hot, sweaty and loud . We have no idea how many people will turn out to see us as it’s obviously very recent and very new, so we have kept the venues small with tickets priced accordingly as low as we reasonably could.
I’ve known all the guys in the band for ages and, besides being great musicians, they are also good friends, which is lucky because this has been an ongoing project for many years! They’ve had to be very patient with me as, of course, I’m so involved with Maiden I don’t really get a lot of free time to work on other stuff. So it’s great to finally have the opportunity to get out and do all these shows. The reaction to the album has been really good and I think it will sound great live. We’re all planning to have a lot of fun on this tour!”
British Lion is Steve’s debut CD outside Iron Maiden and was released by EMI in September 2012. Featured alongside Steve are Richard Taylor on vocals, David Hawkins on guitar and keys, Grahame Leslie on guitar, and Simon Dawson on drums. The 10 track album was mixed by Kevin Shirley [Maiden’s longstanding producer] and has been pronounced both “brilliant” and “a big hearted ferocious triumph” by the music press who also commented that although it’s stamped with Steve’s inimitable style, it’s also very different to Maiden, so fans will be in for a whole new experience seeing and hearing these new songs played live.
FEBRUARY 2013
THU 21 PORTUGAL PORTO HARD CLUB
SAT 23 SPAIN MADRID LA RIVIERA
SUN 24 SPAIN BARCELONA SALAMANDRA
TUE 26 SWITZERLAND ZURICH KOMPLEX
WED 27 ITALY MILAN LIVE CLUB
THUR 28 ITALY ROME ORION
MARCH 2013
SAT 02 GERMANY NUREMBURG ROCKFABRIK
SUN 03 GERMANY MUNICH BACKSTAGE HALLE
TUE 05 GERMANY STUTTGART LKA
THUR 07 AUSTRIA VIENNA ARENA
SAT 09 GERMANY COLOGNE LIVE MUSIC HALL
SUN 10 GERMANY BERLIN COLUMBIA CLUB
TUE 12 SWEDEN MALMO KB
WED 13 SWEDEN GOTHENBURG BREWHOUSE
THUR 14 NORWAY OSLO ROCKERFELLER
SAT 16 SWEDEN STOCKHOLM KLUBBEN
MON 18 FINLAND HELSINKI CIRKUS
FRI 22 HOLLAND AMSTERDAM MELKWEG
SAT 23 BELGIUM VOSSELAAR BIEBOB
SUN 24 FRANCE PARIS LA TRABENDO
TUE 26 ENGLAND O2 ACADEMY ISLINGTON, LONDON
WED 27 ENGLAND O2 ACADEMY 2, BIRMINGHAM
FRI 29 SCOTLAND GLASGOW GARAGE
SAT 30 ENGLAND MANCHESTER CLUB ACADEMY
