21st February - STEVE HARRIS BRITISH LION TOUR OPENS WITH AN ALMIGHTY ROAR!

The British Lion European tour got off to an electrifying start in Portugal last night with a sold-out charity show at the Moto Clube de Faro’s new 600 capacity clubhouse. The venue was packed to the rafters as fans saw Steve Harris and fellow band mates perform a 90 minute blistering set of album tracks, new songs and covers.

The band burst onto the tiny Faro stage and launched immediately into a mesmerizing performance of album opener This Is My God, followed by Lost Worlds and the electrifying Karma Killer, vocalist Richard Taylor proving a natural front man with wonderful command of the crowd, working an already-hyper audience into a virtual frenzy. So much so, that the barrier in front of the stage looked in serious danger of giving way under the throng and had to be stabilised by the Moto Clube security team. With Steve Harris centre-front with Richard Taylor, flanked by guitarists Grahame Leslie and David Hawkins, and Simon Dawson on drums behind, band and crowd seemed to all merge into one swirling, sweaty, seething, rocknroll mass.

A new song, Father Lucifer, came next, catching the crowd’s imagination with its sensuous hypnotic beat, the entire audience now under singer Taylor’s spell, including Steve who was mouthing every word and looking absolutely in his element. Next up came The Chosen Ones intensifying the super-charged atmosphere, the whole crowd singing along with Richard Taylor’s soaring, melodious vocals, complemented by the twin guitars and the whirling-dervish movements of Grahame Leslie who often looked as if he might simply spin clear off the stage and disappear into the crowd.

After a stirring performance of These Are The Hands, came three new songs (Guineas and Crowns, The Burning, Last Chance) all equally well-received before delving back into the British Lion album for the most recent single Us Against The World, and A World Without Heaven. Then came the first cover song of the night, a take on the catchy Do Ya Do Ya Want Me, for which Taylor once again had the crowd eating out of his hand, singing along with the chorus and obeying his every command.

Not until the band broke into dreamy, reflective Judas, the last song of the set, did the frenetic pace slightly abate before once again gathering momentum for the song’s climax. The band left the stage momentarily then reappeared to break into the second cover of the night, UFO’s Let It Roll which sent the by-now delirious audience into overdrive, the whole venue by now in meltdown. The biggest cheer of the night came for closing song Eyes Of The Young which, if this opening night is anything to go by, is sure to become THE anthem of this tour. Last night, British Lion came, saw, conquered and very firmly stamped their seal .


SETLIST:
This Is My God
Lost Worlds
Karma Killer
Father Lucifer
The Chosen Ones
These Are The Hands
Guineas And Crowns
The Burning
Last Chance
Us Against The World
World Without Heaven
Do You Want It
Judas

Let It Roll
Eyes Of The Young

6th February - Steve Harris British Lion announce Charity Show for the Red Cross at the Moto Clube de Faro, Portugal

British Lion will open their 2013 European Tour with a special Charity show at The Moto Clube de Faro, Portugal on February 20th. All tickets will be priced at €10 with profits going to the Red Cross.  As 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 at the 30th International Motorcyle Convention Portugal as guests of the Moto Clube de Faro during their Final Frontier World Tour in 2011.

Says Steve 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”.

For information on how to buy tickets visit the Moto Clube website. After the Faro show the British Lion tour continues across Europe where Zico Chain will join them as Special Guests.

STEVE HARRIS TO PLAY A SELECTION OF EUROPEAN DATES IN EARLY 2013

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.

7th October - More reviews and 'British Lion' shirts

New reviews from About.com and Artist Direct.

The Official Iron Maiden Shop now has 'British Lion' shirts in stock - check them out!
 

24th September - 'British Lion' is out now!

'British Lion' hits the shops today - on CD and digital download.

23rd September - Listening Party is now finished.

We hope you enjoyed the opportunity to hear 'British Lion'

13th September - More 'British Lion' reviews

"Nice one 'Arry"
Classic Rock

Click to read the whole review

"This is a big hearted and ferocious triumph"
Metal Hammer

7th September - The first review of 'British Lion' has just come in!

"British Lion is a brilliant album"
4/5 - Kerrang


Click to read the whole review.

Pre-order British Lion

or visit your favourite record shop / online retailer.

As the visionary, founding member of British metal icons Iron Maiden, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Steve Harris had achieved everything he could possibly have dreamed of. Since its formation in 1975, his East London band has gone on to produce 15 studio albums and generated over 85 million album sales to date.

But behold, the birth of ‘British Lion’, Steve Harris’ first-ever solo/side project.  Developed under super-secret circumstances between tours, it’s an altogether different beast. And according to Harris, the decision to embark upon his first-ever side-project was strictly down to the raw talent of the musicians involved.

“It’s taken years for this to come together,” he says. “Originally vocalist Richard Taylor and guitarist Grahame Leslie sent me a tape – that should show you how long ago this was. I was just impressed and decided to help them a bit and it went from there.”

 “I thought the songs were so strong it’d be a crime if it they didn’t see the light of day.” So after a few years of working on more tracks together with Richard Taylor and now also guitarist David Hawkins, Steve was ready for the next stage, he  went to Kevin Shirley in L.A. ready to mix. “It’s very different but there are some Maiden elements in there. Not that I’ve ever worried too much about what people think!”

Listen to these ten mammoth tracks, and that much is certain. With a decidedly heavy rock-vibe, Steve Harris’ British Lion roaring debut paints with a full palette of sounds; brooding, melancholic, righteously indignant and exuberantly heavy, it is a master class in influences . With Kevin Shirley at the mixing helm – whose credits include Maiden as well as Joe Bonamassa, Journey, Rush, and Led Zeppelin among many others – this is an album to sink your teeth into.

From the growling riffage of opening salvo This Is My God – a snarling diatribe about the perils facing the current generation - to the forlorn heavy follow-up of Lost Worlds which showcases Richard Taylor’s soaring, Glenn Hughes vocals, it’s clear that there’s just no pinning ‘British Lion’ down.

Karma Killer, with its dirge-like muscularity is a sound to behold, and Us Against The World, with its massive chorus and unmistakeably Maiden-like guitar flourishes, demonstrates just how far British Lion has flexed Steve Harris’ considerable musical muscle. Dovetailed with guitarist David Hawkins’ positively gargantuan lyrical guitar melodies, it’s a mere hors d'oeuvre ahead of the epic, The U.F.O./Who-loving, riffing-feast of The Chosen Ones, with its swaggering bravado.

A World Without Heaven – at a breathtaking seven minutes and infused with progressive elements without ever teetering into self-indulgence – illustrates perfectly these songsmiths’ colossal abilities to create a mood and stay there. Supercharged by Steve Harris’ inimitable style but infused with an altogether different chemistry that’s a world apart from Maiden, there’s an un-cynical vibe here that’s as refreshing as it is out of place in today’s all-too-categorised industry.

That’s because, as Harris explains, ‘British Lion’ may be a new project but its soul was conceived decades ago. “Yeah, to me it’s just a collection of really strong songs. It’s all about melody and the 70s feel and attitude with a modern edge,” he says.  “It’s going out and doing the music you feel is right. “

These are songs with strong lyrical themes such as Judas – which, as Harris explains, “is about religion – someone who’s been more than flirting with belief but feels like they’ve been let down.” 
Next comes the uplifting Eyes Of The Young – with its upbeat, almost nostalgic lines “Can you recall now the way it used to be/Kicking at the world we didn’t need to see”. Then the really strong melody lines and power riffs of These Are The Hands “You know who you are!” And in The Lesson, we confront a tale of city-dwelling disenchantment that has an almost eerie feel to it.

As for the album’s name ‘British Lion’, Steve explains; “It represented a lot of things to me. I’ve always been patriotic. I’ve always been proud to be British – I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t be. It’s a massive part of being me. It’s not like I’m flag-waving or trying to preach, this is not a political statement at all. It’s like supporting your football team, where you come from. I think it lends itself to some really strong imagery too, and to me it fits in with the sound.”

And what a sound! Unexpected, exciting and unlike anything Iron Maiden have done, ‘British Lion’ is a bold move from one of the UK’s most successful, influential and talented musicians. “With Maiden we’ve always done whatever feels right and this is no exception. But as for the sound of ‘British Lion’, it’s just natural that it sounds different to anything I’ve done before as I’ve been working with different musicians. I think it’s going to surprise a lot of people and I’m very excited.”

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