Musician Steve Harris: biography and creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

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 group were written by Steve. Would you like to learn more about this musician and his creative path? 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 truck driver, and his mother had several jobs. As a rule, it was she who was engaged in raising children. In addition, Father Stephen had four younger sisters who constantly visited the Harris home. Thus, little Steve grew up in a female environment. As Steve Harris later admitted, the main reason why the young man began to engage in musical activities was that various musical compositions were constantly played in his house. His sisters were just dragged along by the Beatls, Animals and similar bands.

Except for the implementation of the music altalent, Steve Harris (photo can be seen above) made some progress in sports. He was an amateur footballer, played cricket well. In addition, the boy was a promising tennis player. Steve from an early age dreamed of becoming a professional football player. The boy wanted to play for a local sports team called West Ham United. He worked long and hard towards this goal. In his youth, Stephen Harris showed great promise and practically joined the adored West Ham United. Nevertheless, the irresistible craving for musical activity eventually took its toll, Steve decided to give up football.

Further activities

The real revolution in Steve's mind occurred when a friend gave him a couple of albums to listen to Genesis, King Crimson, Jethro Tull. Harris had a great desire to play drums. Nevertheless, a small London apartment did not allow him to purchase 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 a draftsman did not suit the energetic young man. Steve wanted something more. It was for this reason that he bought himself a bass guitar with the first money he earned.

Gypsy's Kiss

In his free time, Steve Harris mastered the basics of playing the guitar. In addition, to get the first experience in a musical group, the young man plays in a local group called Influence. It was rather small and unimpressiveteam. Nevertheless, Steve enjoyed his musical career immensely. In 1973, the guys got bored with the name Influence. It is for this reason that the members of the team decided to change it to something more sonorous. Thus, the group was renamed Gypsy's Kiss (translated from English as "Gypsy's Kiss").

The band's musical repertoire almost entirely consisted of cover versions of popular blues bands. Because of this, the development of Steve Harris as a musician was very slow, because he could not fully demonstrate his skills. The band only played six shows before disbanding.

Smiler

After Gypsy's Kiss broke up, Steve started looking for a new band. One day he came across a band called Smiler (translated from English - "Smiling"), which just needed a bass player. Soon Harris joined the team. However, he did not stay with the group for long. All the guys from Smiler were older than Steve by a couple of years and had a lot of musical experience. It was for this reason that the band members were very arrogant and did not put a penny on their new bass player. One day, Steve offered the band his material: songs from Burning Ambition and Innocent Exile. Innocent Exile became an integral part of the band's live repertoire, and the track Burning Ambition was rejected.

Stylistically speaking, Smiler's work was a mixture of rockabilly and classic rock. In general, the songs of this group differedease of execution.

Steve Harris: Iron Maiden

Toward the end of 1975, Steve realized that there was no place for him 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 band. Officially, the new group was born in May 1976. Steve decided to call 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 told about the times of the Inquisition. The "Iron Maiden" in the Middle Ages was called a special device that was intended for cruel torture: an iron female figure, which from the inside was a cavity with sharp spikes.

The team was rapidly gaining popularity. As early as 1981, the band was playing at a professional level and had regular contracts to replicate their own albums. In addition, the group participated in concert tours not only in England, but throughout the world. For the most part, this is the work of Steve Harris, who not only gathered and promoted the band, 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 (actor born in 1965) starred in such films as "Quarantine" and "12 Rounds".