Steve Harris is a popular British guitarist who is the founder of the famous band Iron Maiden. Almost all the lyrics and music for the songs performed by this band were written by Steve. Would you like to know more about this musician and his career? Welcome to this article!
Childhood
The future musician was born in March 1956 (London, East End). Steve grew up in a large family of four children, among whom he was the only boy. The father of the future musician was an ordinary trucker, and my mother had several works. As a rule, she was the one who brought up the children. In addition, Stephen's father had four younger sisters who constantly visited the Harris home. Thus, little Steve grew up in a female environment. As Harris Steve later admitted, the main reason why the young man began to engage in musical activity was that various musical compositions were constantly played in his house. His sisters just "plodded" from Beatls, Animals and similar groups.
In addition to the realization of musical talent, Steve Harris (photo can be seen above) made some success in sports. He was an amateur soccer player, played cricket well. In addition, the boy was a promising tennis player. Steve dreamed of becoming a professional footballer from an early age. The boy wanted to play for a local sports team called West Ham United. He long and hard went to this goal. In his youth, Stephen Harris showed great promise and almost joined the adored West Ham United. Nevertheless, an irresistible craving for musical activity eventually took its toll, Steve decided to abandon football.
Further activities
A real upheaval in Steve’s mind occurred when a friend gave him a couple of Genesis, King Crimson, Jethro Tull albums. Harris had a great desire to play drums. Nevertheless, the small London apartment did not allow the purchase of a bulky drum kit. Therefore, I had to forget about music for a while. In order not to be a burden for his parents, Steve Harris graduated from college and immediately went to work. However, the boring, painstaking work of the draftsman did not suit the energetic young man. Steve wanted something more. It is for this reason that he acquired a bass guitar for his first earned money.
Gypsy's kiss
In his spare time, Steve Harris mastered the basics of playing the guitar. In addition, in order to gain his first experience in a musical group, the young man plays in a local group called Influence. It was a rather small and influential team. Nevertheless, Steve enjoyed his music career tremendously. In 1973, the guys got bored with the name Influence. For this reason, the members of the team decided to change it to something more sonorous. Thus, the group was renamed Gypsy's Kiss (translated from English - "Gypsy Kiss").
The musical repertoire of the band a little less than completely consisted of cover versions of popular blues bands. Because of this, the development of Steve Harris as a musician was very slowed down, because he could not fully demonstrate his skills. The group played only six concerts, and then broke up.
Smiler
After the breakup of Gypsy's Kiss, Steve began looking for a new band. Once he came across a band called Smiler (translated from English - "Smiling"), which just needed a bass player. Soon Harris joined the team. Nevertheless, he did not stay in the group for long. All the guys from Smiler were a couple of years older than Steve and had great musical experience. It was for this reason that the members of the ensemble were very arrogant and didn’t penniless their new bass player. Once Steve offered the band his material: songs Burning Ambition and Innocent Exile. The Innocent Exile became an integral part of the band's concert repertoire, and the Burning Ambition track was rejected.
As for the stylistic orientation, Smiler's work was a mixture of rockabilly and classical rock. In general, the songs of this group were notable for their simple performance.
Steve Harris: Iron Maiden
By the end of 1975, Steve realized that he had no place in Smiler. Due to disagreements with the members of the team, he leaves the group. After a long search in the local musical environment, Steve collects his own group. The officially new group was born in May 1976. Steve decided to name his team Iron Maiden (translated from English - "Iron Maiden"). Harris took the name from an adventure film called "The Man in the Iron Mask", which narrated about the times of the Inquisition. In the Middle Ages they called the “Iron Maiden” a special device that was intended for cruel torture: an iron female figure, which inside was a cavity with sharp spikes.
The team pretty rapidly gaining popularity. Already in 1981, the group played on a professional level and had regular contracts for the reproduction of their own albums. In addition, the group participated in concert tours not only in England, but also around the world. To a large extent, this is the work of Steve Harris, who not only gathered and untwisted the team, but also made an invaluable contribution to the development of world rock culture.
It is also worth noting that the musician has a namesake. Harris Steve (born in 1965) starred in films such as Quarantine and 12 Rounds.