IRON MAIDEN bassist
Steve Harris will take his new solo/side project
BRITISH LION out on the road this month, visiting fourteen countries and twenty-four cities across Europe. For the first time ever, and as a major surprise to many,
MAIDEN's bass player, founding member and leader will take temporary leave from his
MAIDEN activities and heading out on a full European club tour.
BRITISH LION will open its 2013 European tour with a special charity show at the Moto Clube de Faro, Portugal on February 20. All tickets will be priced at €10 with profits going to the
Red Cross.
As
MAIDEN fans will know, the Moto Clube de Faro and
Steve Harris have a long and cherished history via mutual friend
Manu DaSilva, who sadly passed away in 2006, and as a tribute to whom
IRON MAIDEN headlined the 30th International Motorcyle Convention Portugal as guests of the Moto Clube de Faro during their
Final Frontier World Tour in 2011.
Says
Harris: "We’re really looking forward to starting off the tour at the Moto Clube de Faro. They have a brand new 600-capacity Clubhouse, which makes an ideal warm-up venue for our first-ever live
BRITISH LION show, and we’re very pleased to be donating all profits from this show to the
Red Cross."
Regarding the upcoming
BRITISH LION tour,
Steve previously said: "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!"
"Us Against The World", the latest video from
Steve Harris's
BRITISH LION, can be seen below. The song comes off his first-ever solo release,
"British Lion", which sold around 3,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD landed at position No. 3 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.
"British Lion" was released in the U.S. on September 25, 2012 via
Universal Music Enterprises (
UMe). Mixed by
Kevin Shirley — whose credits include
IRON MAIDEN as well as
Led ZEPPELIN,
JOURNEY and
RUSH, among many others — the CD, which features
Harris alongside vocalist
Richard Taylor, guitarists
Graham Leslie and
David Hawkins and drummer
Simon Dawson, presents a different side of the bassist's musical visions.
"British Lion" comprises ten songs that
Steve and his collaborators have been working on between
IRON MAIDEN tours and releases and is described by
Harris as "'70s-influenced, British-sounding hard rock." "I'd say it's more mainstream rock than metal... and quite commercial… but good commercial," he said. "There's all kinds of stuff going on, with nods to
THE WHO and
UFO and some classic British rock bands, but it's not the progressive rock album some might be expecting."
"British Lion" track listing:
01.
This Is My God02.
Lost Worlds03.
Karma Killer04.
Us Against The World05.
The Chosen Ones06.
A World Without Heaven07.
Judas08.
Eyes Of The Young09.
These Are The Hands10.
The Lesson
