Biffy Clyro scrap US tour over ‘genius’ visa error

Scottish rock band Biffy Clyro postponed their US tour less than a week before it was due to start due to a visa mix-up.

Starting on December 2, the band were due to play a series of intimate concerts to promote their 10th album Futique, which topped the UK charts in September.

But singer Simon Neil announced the tour was being pushed back until next year, blaming the delay on an administrative error.

“A few [expletive] Genius put the wrong start date in our work visa, so when we received our visas in the last few days, we realized it doesn’t start until after our tour ends,” he said in an Instagram video, adding, “We are so angry about this.”

“We’ve been in contact with four or five immigration lawyers, we’ve been in contact with Congress.

“There is [nothing] any of them can do something to help,” he continued. (Warning: link contains strong language).

The singer said the dates would be rescheduled to April or May 2026 and told fans existing tickets would be honored.

However, he acknowledged that fans may have already booked flights and accommodation to see the December dates, and apologized to anyone left out.

“I completely understand if you want a refund and you have lost confidence in us,” he said.

“I understand and I would be angry with us too. You can’t be angrier with us than me…Thank you for your time and sorry for wasting it,” he added.

Later in the video message, Neil said the band felt “slightly cursed” when it came to touring America.

In 2022, they had to cancel the last date of their American tour when the singer caught Covid.

The postponement of their latest tour comes just days after Biffy Clyro announced the biggest concert of their career – headlining London’s Finsbury Park in July 2026.

The trio have been one of the UK’s biggest rock bands since forming in the early 2000s, with eight top-five albums – including four number ones – generating over a million sales.

Their international breakthrough came with Only Revolutions in 2009, which went platinum in the UK and received a Mercury Prize nomination.

The album contained two of their biggest hits: The soaring and anthemic Bubbles; and the windswept ballad Many Of Horror, which later became a number one hit for X Factor winner Matt Cardle (under the title “When We Collide”).

Futique, released in September, is the band’s first album in four years – following a hiatus during which the band briefly considered calling time on their career.

Its title is a portmanteau of the words “future and ancient” – a word the band coined to describe songs and emotions that may seem ordinary in the moment, but will eventually become precious objects to be cherished and studied.

The record received rave reviews, with the NME calling it “Biffy’s most personal and definitive records to date”; and Mojo magazine saying the trio had found renewed meaning.

“Group kisses and make-ups can seem artificial, unconvincing; but this one seems authentic and bubbly, [with] Biffy’s urgent and passionate music, oxygenated by the passage of time. »