BRITISH LION, the side project of IRON MAIDEN bassist and founder Steve Harris, performed yesterday (June 3) at the Rockfest in Hyvinkää, Finland. Fan-filmed video of the concert can be seen below.
The three-day Rockfest festival is being headlined by NIGHTWISH (Thursday, June 2),SCORPIONS (June 3) and IRON MAIDEN (Saturday, June 4).
Last fall, BRITISH LION completed a U.K. headlining tour with support from AIRFORCE.
In October, BRITISH LION withdrew from a U.K. tour with THE DARKNESS, citing “completely unacceptable” tour “protocols.”
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 now that I’m going to be playing on this [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.”