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 visa mix-up.

Starting on December 2, the band were scheduled to play a series 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 postponed until next year, blaming the delay on an administrative error.

“Some [expletive] genius put the wrong start date on our work visa, so when we got our visas in the last couple of days, we realized it wouldn't start until our tour was over,” he said in an Instagram video, adding: “We're very angry about this.”

“We contacted four or five immigration lawyers, we contacted Congress.

“Eat [nothing] any of them can help” he continued. (Warning: link contains profanity).

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

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

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

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

Neil later said in a video message that the band felt “a little cursed” when it came to touring America.

In 2022, they had to cancel the final US tour date when the singer contracted 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. Their eight top-five albums (four of them number one) have generated over a million sales.

Their international breakthrough came with 2009's Only Revolutions, which went platinum in the UK and was nominated for a Mercury Prize.

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

Futique, released in September, was the band's first album in four years – following a hiatus during which the band briefly considered calling it a day.

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

The record received rave reviews, with NME calling it one of Biffy's “most personal and striking records to date”; and Mojo magazine stated that the trio had found a new sense of purpose.

“Group kisses and makeup can seem contrived and unconvincing, but this one feels sincere and vibrant, [with] Biffy's intense, passionate music, rich in time spent away from home.”