Interview by Craig Eriksson
It’s been a long time since bass great Steve Harris and his main band, heavy rock icons Iron Maiden have toured Australia, last here on their Book of Souls World Tour in 2015. They were due to return in 2020 with the ‘Legacy Of The Beast’ tour but of course … covid! Finally in 2024 the Irons are coming back with their Future Past World Tour and this time Steve Harris is bringing his mistress, that’s right his ‘other’ band British Lion are coming too, playing their first ever Australian gigs. Plus in another enticing ‘three-way’ connection, special guest at all British Lion Australian dates will be Tony Moore’s Awake. Tony Moore was an early keyboardist with Iron Maiden way back in 1977.
Australian Musician’s Craig Eriksson was not only thrilled to chat to British rock legend Steve Harris but is also looking forward to seeing the bass beast in action in two bands, over two rockin’ nights in September.
“Well, if we don’t wear you out in the first night, we might do it by the second night,” Steve Harris tells Craig about the double whammy of catching both British Lion and Iron Maiden on consecutive nights.
Obviously Harris has toured Australia a bunch of times but most of the British Lion members haven’t.
“I’ve travelled to Australia many times and still enjoy it,” Steve Harris tells us ahead of the tour. “The lads are very excited being their first time. Some have toured in USA but not Australia.”
While Iron Maiden’s Future Past tour features one of the most spectacular stage productions of the band’s career, the British Lion gigs will play to much smaller rooms in an old school, high energy rock n roll show.
“A good honest rock n roll show,” is how Steve describes it. “Come and see our show and you’ll have a good time … British Lion is a great band and we play wonderful music.”
At 68 years old, Harris is still one of the most dynamic bass players in rock and he’s been able to stay that way by not getting sucked into the stereotypical rock and roll lifestyle. He admits that depending on how late the gig finishes and where they’re staying, he may have a beer at the bar in the hotel they’re staying in, or if they’ve got to get to next destination asap, they may have a beer on the tour bus but that’s as ‘wild’ as it gets!
“Health & fitness has always been important to me,” he says. “I’ve never taken drugs or smoked. I don’t really eat junk food. It’s important to just keep moving and to look after yourself, especially as you get older.”
While he’s not into gym workouts, he does enjoy playing football on a regular basis and as Maiden fans know, he’s an avid West Ham United football follower. In fact Harris was asked by a football talent scout to train with West Ham as a teenager. That loyal club connection has stayed with him throughout his music career.
In 2022 Iron Maiden teamed up with West Ham for the ‘Die With Your Boots On’ collaboration, which saw the band represented on the front of the Premier League side’s kit.
“It’s a dream come true to have the tie-up with West Ham for the Iron Maiden shirt,” Harris told West Ham’s official website at the time. “All around the world we get people in the audience with West Ham stuff, and from what I was told a lot of fans from overseas were going to the games and the club shop and saying they became West Ham fans through Maiden.”
While the rest of the band aren’t as football-crazy as Steve, they’re happy to indulge Steve and his passion for the game.
“The other lads in Iron Maiden aren’t really into football,” he tells me. “The British Lion lads aren’t into football either and don’t support any team as far as I’m aware.” Although Nicko’s drum tech is a keen Manchester United fan, which I’m sure leads to some healthy backstage tour banter.
An Iron Maiden tour is a well-oiled machine featuring huge production elements, whereas British Lion is a stripped back, basic pub-rock stage set up. Harris’ bass rig for the Maiden gigs is a complex rack mount system, while for British Lion he relies on hired backline as the production budget is not at that same arena level.
For the Australian tour, Steve has requested three different options for bass rigs. He’ll be supplied with a Gallien Krueger rig, a Marshall rig and then an Ampeg rig, consisting of Ampeg SVT Classic heads and two Ampeg 810 cabinets.
Bass-wise, he’s not as wedded to his signature P Bass as we’d thought.
“The last two shows I did with British Lion was only a few weeks ago. We did a festival in Faro in Portugal and did a club gig the following night in Seville, Spain. I used a different bass for both of those, but it was my old bass, a blue bass that I use as a backup, but I used that as the main one. This time ‘round I’ll be using my second bass that I use as a backup for Maiden, which is like a signature series one. And then I’ve also got a signature series one as a backup for Maiden as well.”
At that Seville gig, British Lion performed a powerful 17 song set, kicking off with This Is My God, the opening track from his debut solo album (titled British Lion!). Pressed to name a stage favourite, Harris was both honest and diplomatic in his answer.
“I like playing ’em all,” he says. “It’s the same with Maiden. I enjoy playing ’em all because we’ve got a few songs we don’t play in the set anymore and it’s not that we don’t enjoy playing them anymore, but it’s just whatever. I know I enjoy playing ’em all, but I suppose if I had to pick a couple, well … at the moment, I love playing The Chosen Ones from the 2012 album. Lightning and Last Chance is always good from the 2020 The Burning album. It’s good audience participation in that one, but I enjoy ’em all.”
Steve Harris has been one of the most influential bass players in rock history with his galloping bass lines and distinctive tone. He was brought up on a diet of bass greats from Sabbath’s Geezer Butler, to Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, Deep Purple’s Roger Glover and Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott but we were keen to know if he’s been hearing any modern day rock bands which have piqued his interest?
“Well, I think there’s loads of good young bands out there.” he tells me. “I’ve seen a few bands at festivals and stuff because I’ve been playing earlier in the days sometimes with some of the festivals with British Lion. I’ve seen a few decent bands about as well. But I must admit it’s not just me being biased, I have to say I think that a favourite band at the moment is The Raven Age, which my son’s in but I love it. They’ve only made three albums but I love every single song. I can’t say that about many albums really or many bands and every single song I like. So I wasn’t a mad lover of the song Forgotten World to start with but then I got into it. So that was the only one I wasn’t to start with. But I really like ’em all. But stuff like Grave of the Fireflies I just think is amazing. I wish I could say I’d written it myself, it’s that good.”
With 50 years of touring and recording behind them, Iron Maiden are at the tail end of their distinguished career. There are no new recording plans in the works, although British Lion on the other hand have added a couple of new tunes to their set, which may be recorded at some point. I dared to ask when it might all come to an end for the Irons.
“Well, we’ve been asked that sort of question 15 years ago and we’re still doing it. So I dunno, we’re just carrying as long as we can. As long as we feel we can still do a good job and enjoy what we are doing, we’ll just carry on going. But yeah, of course, I mean we’re getting older and older in that time of retirement, I suppose it’s probably coming closer and closer, but just not yet.
And when that day comes, do you think you’d still continue on with British Lion?
“I don’t know. I mean I don’t really think about it. I don’t want to think about it. I just enjoy one day to another really.”
BRITISH LION AUSTRALIAN DATES
Saturday, August 31 – Magnet House, Perth
Tuesday, September 3 – Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide
Thursday, September 5 – Croxton Bandroom, Melbourne
Monday, September 9 – The Triffid, Brisbane
Wednesday, September 11 – Manning Bar, Sydney
https://britishlionuk.com/
IRON MAIDEN AUSTRALIAN DATES
Sunday 1 September: PERTH, RAC Arena
Wednesday 4 September: ADELAIDE, Adelaide Entertainment Centre
Friday 6 September: MELBOURNE, Rod Laver Arena
Saturday 7 September: MELBOURNE, Rod Laver Arena
Tuesday 10 September: BRISBANE, Brisbane Entertainment Centre
Thursday 12 September: SYDNEY, Qudos Bank Arena
Friday 13 September: SYDNEY, Qudos Bank Arena (NEW SHOW)
Support on all shows comes from American metallers Killswitch Engage.
Visit: www.ironmaiden.com or www.tegdainty.com for further information