On January 3, BRITISH LIONthe side project of IRON MAIDEN bassist and founder Steve Harrisperformed at the Cart & Horses pub in Stratford, London, England where MAIDEN made their live debut in 1976. The show marked the opening night of BRITISH LION‘s 17-date UK tour to kick off the new year. Video of BRITISH LION‘s Cart & Horses performance can be seen below.
BRITISH LION will perform in 2024 Monsters Of Rock cruise, which sets sail from Miami on March 2 for six nights.
Last summer, BRITISH LION completed a 15-date tour throughout Europe. It included 13 headline tour dates, as well as festival appearances at hellfest and Sweden Rock Festival.
BRITISH LION‘s second album, “The Burning”came out in January 2020 in digipack CD, double gatefold vinyl and digital download formats via Explorer1 Music (E1). The LP was recorded, engineered and mixed at Barnyard Studios by Tony Newton and produced by Steve Harris.
BRITISH LION‘s first US tour took place in January and February 2020.
BRITISH LION understands singer Richard Taylorguitarists David Hawkins and Grahame Leslie, Harris on bass and keyboards, and drummer Simon Dawson.
Asked by the Tampa Bay Times what the itch is that BRITISH LION scratches that he doesn’t get in his job with MAIDEN, Harris said: “I suppose playing small clubs and being close and personal with the audience. I love playing big places as well. I enjoy them all, and I’m very lucky that I can do them all. But also, it’s clubs that I never played with MAIDEN, even in Europe. There’s a famous club called the Milky Way in Amsterdam, which I managed to play with BRITISH LIONbut I never did that with MAIDEN. There’s places that I’m playing on [the U.S.] tour that I’ve never played before. So it’s all new ground. It’s a challenge. It’s nice. I like a challenge.”
In a 2020 interview with Bass Player magazine, Harris He said that he loves playing small clubs. “I’m very lucky that I can play all types of gigs; massive gigs and small ones as well,” he said. “It’s a change. I’m not trying to conquer the world with this band; there’s not enough years left in me to do that anyway.”
Asked if the different venues present a different set of challenges, steve said: “I actually think it should be the same, whether you’re playing for 200 or 200,000 people, you know. To me, there’s no difference. You still give 110 percent wherever you’re playing. We had one gig where the promoter just didn’t do [anything]. I think we had, like, 95 people in there, but it was still a great gig, one of the best of the tour. It doesn’t matter. We’re still going for it, and I was proud that we went out there. It was fantastic.”
