Composed of Simon Neil (vocals, guitar), James Johnston (bass, vocals) and Ben Johnston (drums, vocals). You’ll have heard of biffy clyro before of course. About how Simon Neil and school friend twins James and Ben Johnston formed their first band as young teenagers at school in the nearby town of Kilmarnock in 1995 over a shared love of experimental rock and hardcore. You’ll know something of how they earned an army of rabidly devotional fans – christened Team Biffy – who followed them across the country and beyond, their hearts swelling with the searing emotion; their minds expanded by the threesome’s inventive rock that somehow managed to hit them in the gut at the same time.
And you’ll probably know about their three albums; ‘Blackened Sky’, ‘The Vertigo Of Bliss’ and ‘Infi nity Land’, which slowly saw them notch up higher and higher chart positions.
Two and a half years later the bands hard work was unveiled as the next truly, historically, important rock record to come out of the British Isles. It was called ‘Puzzle’ and was released in September 2007. “Puzzle” was a gigantic, ostentatious raising of their game. “We’ve always been very ambitious in the music we wanted to make,” says Simon. “It was never just about guitars bass and drums, even though we’re a three-piece. On our records we’ve always tried to use as much weird shit as possible.” ‘Mountains’ – the new single from biffy clyro that is currently being heard everywhere is a breath-taking return to form and is the fi rst taste of album #5, released later this year.
“We just want to make records that people can listen to in 20 years and think they’re good fucking records,” says Simon. “We believe that if we follow what we want to do, which is very much our own take on things, that things will sound honest and real in 20 years time because there’s gonna be no schtick associated with it. We’re not dressed crazily, people stood up and took notice because we were making
great music, and people had to stand up and pay attention, so I think if that can apply over three or four years, then I just hope that in 20 years it still applies. That’s what we want to do; we want to be an important band. And we think we are.”
Tickets onsale Wednesday 28th January
Saturday 21st March 2009 Capitol, Perth
Tuesday 24th March 2009 The Hi Fi, Melbourne
Wednesday 25th March 2009 Arena, Brisbane
Thursday 26th March 2009 Metro Theatre, Sydney
