BRITISH LION, the side project of IRON MAIDEN bassist and founder Steve Harris, will return to the stage in 2025 to play a set of European shows this summer, including a one-off date in England. They will then embark on a major headline tour of the U.K. this winter, which includes a five-night residency at London’s legendary Cart & Horses venue in Stratford where IRON MAIDEN played its first-ever gigs.
BRITISH LION has performed at Cart & Horses a number of times in recent years, with sold-out audiences reveling in the chance to see the formidable hard rock quintet in such intimate surroundings. These five shows will be additionally powerful as they come at the end of a year of celebrations for IRON MAIDEN‘s 50th anniversary, bringing Harris back to what fans revere as the birthplace of IRON MAIDEN.
He comments: “We’re really happy to be doing a number of European shows in the summer as well a more extensive tour of the U.K. at the end of the year. It’s great to be able to return to The Booking Hall in Dover, which is our only U.K. summer show! It was under threat of closing last year but was saved with the support from BRITISH LION and other music fans around the country! We look forward to seeing you all on the road!”
BRITISH LION will be joined by special guest support acts at the U.K. and European headline shows. TONY MOORE’S AWAKE will be special guests from Dover through to Newcastle while STRAY will be special guests from Bradford through to London.
The upcoming BRITISH LION dates are as follows:
Festival performance
June 20 – Dessel, Belgium @ Graspop Metal Meeting
European headline tour
August 3 – Dover, UK @ Booking Hall, UK
August 4 – Eindhoven, Netherlands @ Dynamo, NL
August 5 – Saarbrücken, Germany @ Garage
August 8 – Barcelona, Spain @ Salamandra
August 9 – Murcia, Spain @ Mamba
August 10 – Seville, Spain @ Custom, SPA
August 12 – Faro, Portugal @ Moto Clube
U.K. headline tour
November 28 – Buckley, UK @ The Tivoli
November 29 – Troon, UK @ Winter Storm Festival
November 30 – Newcastle, UK @ The Anarchy Brew
December 2 – Bradford, UK @ Nightrain
December 3 – Manchester, UK @ Gorilla
December 4 – Nuneaton, UK @ Queens Hall
December 6 – Isle of Wight, UK @ Strings Bar & Venue
December 7 – Exeter, UK @ Phoenix
December 8 – Frome, UK @ Cheese and Grain
December 10 – Cardiff, UK @ Tramshed
December 11 – Colchester, UK @ Arts Centre
December 12 – Gravesend, UK @ Leo’s Red Lion
December 13 – Southend, UK @ Chinnerys
December 15 – London, UK @ Cart & Horses
December 16 – London, UK @ Cart & Horses
December 17 – London, UK @ Cart & Horses
December 18 – London, UK @ Cart & Horses
December 19 – London, UK @ Cart & Horses
In a recent interview with Australia’s Heavy, Harris was asked if he has commenced work on the third BRITISH LION album. He responded: “Yeah. We’ve got two new songs already in the set anyway. We did a lot of new songs before ‘The Burning’ album. We played them live quite a lot — probably two-thirds of the album, actually, we played live before we actually recorded it. So we’ve got two new songs now in the set and we’ll just keep adding new songs as they come along. So that’s the idea anyway.”
In a separate interview with Spotlight Report, Harris talked about the differences in the musical direction of BRITISH LION compared to that of IRON MAIDEN. He said: “The songs in BRITISH LION are driven by [singer Richard Taylor] and the guys, so it’s just going to be different. Then I come in and get involved with that material in different aspects. Since it’s driven by them, it’s going to be different anyway. I mean, this sort of started off as a bit more UFO, which MAIDEN was also influenced by, but MAIDEN also had a lot of more prog type and all sorts of other influences as well. BRITISH LION is just more like a rock band with very strong melodies, and Richie‘s style of singing is very, very different from Bruce‘s [Dickinson]. I think he is a great singer.”
He added: “BRITISH LION is not really a metal band, you know? I mean, it’s just an exciting band. I enjoy playing in BRITISH LION as much as I want to.”
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 U.S. tour took place in January and February 2020.
BRITISH LION comprises singer Richard Taylor, guitarists 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 LION, but 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 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.”
Content shared from blabbermouth.net.