By BRIAN GIFFIN
FOR the best part of the last 45 years, Steve Harris has been world famous as the founder, leader, chief songwriter and bassist for heavy metal juggernaut Iron Maiden. This evening, however, I sit a little nervously waiting for his call as the bass player with the rather lesser-known British Lion, the band he put together with singer Richard Taylor and guitarist Grahame Leslie in 2012.
When his voice comes on the line, there’s a moment where 13-year old me can’t believe who he’s talking to. With a laugh, Steve Harris puts me immediately at ease and while we can’t see each other and we’re separated by half a planet, in my mind we’re in a pub somewhere having a couple of lagers.
Harris will finally be in Australia again with Iron Maiden this week. This time, he’s bringing British Lion down for a tour as well. Scheduling shows with his side hustle hasn’t always been easy, but Maiden’s current tour stretches their time here across two weeks, giving him ample opportunity.
“When I’ve been out on Maiden tours,” he explains, “especially what I’ve been able to do on recent tours where I’ve been able to fit shows in before and after. There just needs to be enough time to fit a British Lion tour in, as well. Obviously this tour was a great opportunity. It’s been a while since I’ve been there but the other guys haven’t played there before so it was just a great opportunity for them to play and it was about time to do it.”
Many fans excited about Iron Maiden’s return to our shores after an eight year absence will also likely be keen to check out Harris up close and personal in club-sized rooms.
“That’s the thing,” he says. “I suppose some people will want to come along just to get up close to the stage and whatever and it’s the same for me, really, because I’ll be playing to an audience where I can see the whites of their eyes. So I’m actually in a position where I can do both arena shows and small shows, but playing clubs is a bit like going back to the early days of Maiden. It’s just like a change, and this time we’re playing somewhere where we’re playing for the first time so we don’t really know what to expect, but it’ll be great. We’re going to go out there and go for it, and anyone who comes out to see us will have a great time.”
Not really knowing what to expect from a crowd is a weird thing to hear Harris say, but British Lion is a very different experience even for him.
“It’s very different. It’s different for me, and that’s what I mean. It’s the best thing for me. I get the best of both worlds.”
The news that Steve Harris was working on what was then referred to as a solo project came as a surprise to many of the band’s long-term fans. For years it seemed he never had an interest in doing anything outside of Iron Maiden. There wasn’t even a random guest appearance on some other artist’s album.
There was a pretty obvious explanation for that, when you think about it.
“I never had the time!” Harris declares, with a laugh. “I didn’t have the time for that. Back then we were touring so much, then going into the studio and going back out again, so there really wasn’t time. But in recent years I’ve had time in between tours, and even during tours, there’s been a less-is-more, quality-over-quantity type thing, so it’s given me the opportunity to do a few other things.”
Working with Taylor and Leslie in a band came after first being approached by the pair 20 years before, in a struggling but aspirant version of the group.
“I was helping them out, I was working on stuff with them, getting them gigs, managing them, all that kind of stuff… a little bit of recording. I did get up and jam with them at one particular gig, which was in the middle of nowhere so I don’t think there’s any footage of it anywhere.”
The band fell apart before anything much could develop.
“It was just so sad that those songs would never see the light of day,” Harris recalls, “and the only way that was going to happen was to get a couple of the lads together and be in the band myself.”
After working with the same team for so long in Iron Maiden, a band that already had a developed sound and identity, was it a challenge for him to start working with a different team on something that was more or less untested?
“Not really,” he says, “because, as I said, I knew them anyway from a long time ago. I’d known them for many, many years. So it was just a no-brainer, really. They’re all really good guys, good players and really talented people, and so… it’s exciting to do another project, as well.”
British Lion’s sound is definitely geared around the same early musical influences that Harris admired. Their second and most recent release, 2020’s The Burning, however, is comfortably removed far enough from his other band to stand apart.
“I think there’s some elements in there, but in general it’s more a rock band… metal, I suppose. Particularly live, so I think people just need to come and check it out. It’s a really good live band with really good songs and lots of audience participation. That’s the thing, really. Just come and check it out.”
As noted previously, a lot of people will no doubt be excited about getting up close to Steve Harris, and it’s great for him to get so close to the audience again.
“Yeah it works both ways, but the band is more than just me,” he points out, “and people will realise that when they come and see it. It started off really like that, I suppose, but I always wanted it to be a band.”
British Lion’s 2012 debut was released and marketed as a Steve Harris solo album, but he always preferred to refer to it as a “side project”. He emphasises that this is as much a band as Iron Maiden.
“We’ve stayed with a stable line-up. The line-up’s been the same for the last 12 years. I think we’re just getting better and better as a band live, and the second album is more representative of what the band’s like live.”
Even today, scheduling British Lion activity around Iron Maiden remains a problem, but between albums there was more time to work with the band ahead of The Burning.
“We played a lot of shows beforehand,” Harris explains, “so then we just went in and did it very quickly, live. It sounds very fresh and vibrant. And that was the intention.”
Steve Harris has been doing this music caper for a long time now. Next year will mark Iron Maiden’s 50th anniversary. Speculation about the band’s ongoing future seems constant now, with rumours that each album will be their last going back at least as far as 2010, when they dared to release an album called The Final Frontier.
Harris is nonchalant about such talk. Always a band that’s done pretty much as they’ve liked, he doesn’t pay much heed to hearsay.
“We just do what we do and we don’t really worry about that sort of stuff. We just get on with it. We’ll carry on as long as we can, as long as we are relevant to ourselves, not to anyone else. As long as we still feel that we can cut it live, and do what we do, we’ll carry on.”
If he ever did decide to hang up the bass one day, however, and he’s just sitting back with a pint watching the Hammers, never having to worry about when the next show is ever again, what’s the first thing he would want to do?
He laughs.
“Well, that would be pretty boring wouldn’t it!”
After a moment, he continues: “Dave the guitarist from British Lion is always saying ‘Steve, I’d love to do a prog album with you’ and I keep saying ‘mate, when am I gonna get time to do that?’ That would be nice to do – but I don’t think so!”
Has he fulfilled everything he’s wanted to do? As a younger music writer I aspired to one day interview Steve Harris. Is there anything left that Steve Harris still wants to do that he hasn’t done yet?
“I don’t really think about things like that,” he says, in the same amiable manner that characterises our chat. “I just think about going out there and playing as long as I can. That’s what it’s always been about for me. Making records is a close second, but it’s always been about playing live and if there ever comes a time when I can’t do it anymore, that’ll be a sad day for me.”
BRITISH LION AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2024
31/8: Magnet House, Perth
3/9: Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide
5/9: Croxton Band Room, Melbourne
9/9: The Triffid, Brisbane
11/9: Manning Bar, Sydney
IRON MAIDEN THE FUTURE PAST WORLD TOUR 2021
1/9: RAC Arena, Perth
4/9: Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide
6/9: Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
7/9: Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
10/9: Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane
12/9: QUDOS Bank Arena, Sydney
13/9: QUDOS Bank Arena, Sydney
