British Lion / Airforce

Leo’s Red Lion, Gravesend 21/11/2021

Live review by; Myk

 

It was absolutely packed at Leo’s with a genuine rock legend in the shape of Steve Harris and his other band British Lion present. But before the main show we had the mighty Airforce whose history goes back to the late seventies/early eighties with no shortage of interaction with Iron Maiden along the way. 

 

After a 25 year hiatus they returned to touring and have now found an incredible singer in the shape of Flavio Lino from Portugal. Unsurprisingly given his previous role in a Maiden covers band he sounds a lot like Bruce Dickinson and add to that the riffs supplied by Chop Pitman the maidenesque sound is complete. This is definitely a compliment and with a solid rhythm section of Doug Sampson (ex Maiden) on drums and Tony Hatton on bass driving each song along it was a real return to the early eighties NWOBHM sound. A great way to warm up the crowd.

 

British Lion take to the stage having made their way through the packed audience to the stage. With Graeme Leslie on guitar, Steve Harris on bass obviously, vocalist Rich Taylor, lead guitarist Dave Hawkins and drummer Simon Dawson. 

 

They kicked off with ‘This is my God’ from their first album, the sound is classic heavy metal except for the vocals that seem to belong to a different genre, more progressive rock, a melding of the two styles. Does it work, clearly by the audience response it does and it is very different from Steve Harris’ day job. Part of the reason for this side project is so they can play these small intimate gigs. 

 

Back in the late seventies I think, Iron Maiden played at Leo’s but still this was a bit of a coup for Leo’s long standing owner Terry Lee. The bands albums are heavily plundered with ‘Spitfire’ a highlight from the second album ‘The Burning’ and ‘Us Against the World’ from the self-titled debut stood out. There was going to be no silly shenanigans regarding an encore so the band just finished off with a couple of more laid back tunes ‘A World without Heaven’ and ‘Eyes of the Young’. 

 

A great performance from a band clearly enjoying themselves.

 

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