IRON MAIDEN founding bassist 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 February 21st. 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.

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.

Tour dates:

February 2013

21 - Porto, Portugal - Hard Club
23 - Madrid, Spain - La Riviera
24 - Barcelona, Spain - Salamandra
26 - Zurich, Switzerland - Komplex
27 - Milan, Italy - Live Club
28 - Rome, Italy - Orion

March 2013

2 Germany Nuremburg, Germany - Rockfabrik

3 Germany Munich, Germany - Backstage Halle

5 Germany Stuttgart, Germany - LKA

7 Austria Vienna, Austria - Arena

9 Germany Cologne, Germany - Live Music Hall

10 Germany Berlin, Germany - Columbia Club

12 Sweden Malmo, Sweden - KB

13 Sweden Gothenburg, Sweden - Brewhouse

14 Norway Oslo, Norway - Rockerfeller

16 Sweden Stockholm, Sweden - Klubben

18 Finland Helsinki, Finland - Cirkus

22 Holland Amsterdam, Holland - Melkweg

23 Belgium Vosselaar, Belgium - Biebob

24 France Paris, France - La Trabendo

26 - London, England - O2 Academy Islington
27 - Birmingham, England - O2 Academy 2,
29 - Glasgow, Scotland - Garage
30 - Manchester, England - Club Academy

"Metal" Tim Henderson from BraveWords caught up with Harris at Maiden's Toronto stop of their Maiden England Tour, at the Molson Amphitheatre. The chat can be seen in two parts below: