STEVE HARRIS's BRITISH LION Announces Spring/Summer 2023 European Tour

BRITISH LION, the side project of IRON MAIDEN bassist and founder Steve Harris, has announced a 15-date tour throughout Europe between May and July 2023. It includes 13 new headline tour dates, as well as festival appearances at Hellfest and Sweden Rock Festival which were previously announced.

Harris comments: "We just had a brilliant time on the January U.K. tour and it's great to be heading out again in 2023. I'm really looking forward to both summer tours this year," referencing the fact that MAIDEN will be on the road at the same time.

Tickets for the BRITISH LION tour are on sale now and can be purchased via britishlionuk.com/tour.

Tour dates:

May 27 - Cvetlicarna, Ljubljana - Slovenia ***
Jun 02 - Pakkahuone, Tampere - Finland ***
Jun 06 - Ole Bull Scene, Bergen - Norway ***
Jun 08 - Sweden Rock, Solvesborg - Sweden
Jun 12 - Kamienna 12, Krakow - Poland ***
Jun 16 - Hellfest, Clisson - France
Jun 20 - Capitol, Hannover - Germany ***
Jun 23 - Opium, Dublin - Ireland *
Jun 29 - Rebellion, Manchester - England **
Jul 02 - Rescue Rooms, Nottingham - England **
Jul 10 - Q Factory, Amsterdam - Netherlands *
Jul 14 - Legend, Milan - Italy *
Jul 19 - Garaje Beat Club, Murcia - Spain *
Jul 24 - FZW, Dortmund - Germany ***
Jul 30 - Backstage Halle, Munich - Germany ***

Support will come from AIRFORCE *, STRAY ** and DARKTRIBE ***

Prior to the January 2023 run of dates, BRITISH LION last played live in the U.K. at last year's Download festival to a packed Dogtooth Stage following a headline pub and club tour of late 2021.

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."

Photo credit: John McMurtrie