Biffy Clyro scrap US tour over ‘genius’ visa error

Scottish rock band Biffy Clyro have postponed their US tour less than a week before it was due to begin, due to a mix-up in their visas.

Starting on 2 December, the group were supposed to play a string of intimate shows in support of their 10th album Futique, which topped the UK charts in September.

But singer Simon Neil announced the tour was being pushed back to next year, blaming an admin error for the delay.

“Some [expletive] genius put the wrong start date into our work visa, so when we received our visas in the last couple of days, we realised it doesn’t begin until after our tour is meant to finish,” he said in an Instagram video, adding: “We are so angry about this.”

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

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

The singer said the dates would be rescheduled for April or May 2026, and told fans existing tickets would be honoured.

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

“I completely understand if you want to get refunds and you’ve lost faith in us,” he said.

“I get it and I’d be raging at us too. You can’t be any madder at us than I am… Thanks for your time and sorry for wasting it,” he added.

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

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

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

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

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

The album contained two of their biggest hits: The soaring, 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 where the band briefly considered calling it a day.

Its title is a portmaneau of the words “future and antique” – a word the band coined to describe songs and emotions that might seem ordinary in the moment, but that will eventually become valuable artefacts to be cherished and studied.

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

“Band kiss-and-makeups can seem contrived, unconvincing; but this one feels genuine and sparky, [with] Biffy’s urgent, passionate music oxygenated by time away.”