Biffy Clyro Biography
The Scottish Rock Group Biffy Clyro (Often known just as ‘Biffy’) was first formed in Ayrshire by Simon Neil and Ben Johnston in 1995. The two, along with their drummer (Only known as Barry) first launched their band with the name ‘Skrewfish’. Ben’s twin brother later replaced Barry and the tree of them began to play live gigs in and around Glasgow.
It didn’t take long before the band was noticed by Dee Bahl who after hearing them play signed up as their manager. He helped them release ‘iname’ an independent single on Aereogramme's Babi Yaga label on June 28th 1999. From there the band went on to be chosen by Electric Honey, the Stow College record label to release the EP ‘thekidswhopoptodaywillrocktomorrow’ which was given great airplay on Radio Scotland upon its release on June 13th 2000. After the success of the single Biffy Clyro were spotted by a representative of the notorious ‘Beggars Banquet’ who later went on to sign the band to their independent label.
On April 9th 2001 they released their next single ‘27’ this was then followed by ‘Justboy’ a re-recording of a song from thekidswhopoptodaywillrocktomorrow EP. Next came the song ‘57’ on Feb 4th 2002.
Biffy Clyro’s debut album ‘Blackened Sky’ was released on 11th March 2002 and was well received by the public, this coupled with their huge success from touring the country earned them a strong fan base which increased even more when they were asked to be the support band for popular American band ‘Weezer’ at the Barrowlands in Glasgow on March 20th. The single ‘Joy Discovery Invention’ was later released as a double A side including ‘Toys, Toys, Toys, Choke, Toys, Toys, Toys’ which went on to be included on the bands second album ‘The Vertigo of Bliss’ released on 16th June after the band recorded several singles at Linford Manor recording studio, Milton Keynes.
Biffy Clyro’s next instalment of their journey to success was to head to Wales to record a new album titled Infinity Land the release date for which was 4th October 2005 but as usual the band released a few singles before the album’s launch. These were titled ‘Glitter and Trauma’ ‘My Recovery Injection’ and were accompanied by a digital download of ‘There's No Such Thing as a Jaggy Snake’, which was released on 31 May.
The Warner Bros offshoot 14th Floor invited Biffy Clyro to sign with them in 2006 so the band left their previous label and moved to Canada for a while to record their fourth album at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver. They recorded a cover version of Weezer’s hit ‘Buddy Holly’ which was featured on Kerrang! And was offered up as a free single with the magazine in issue #1110.
A string of hit singles followed including ‘Semi-Mental’ ‘Saturday Superhouse’ (This reached No 14 on the UK hit singles chart and was the band’s highest chart position to date) and ‘Living is a Problem Because Everything Dies’. Their fourth and most recent album ‘Puzzle’ was released on 4th June 2007 and was a huge hit with fans and critics alike reaching Number 2 in the Albums chart. Biffy went on to play several high profile gigs that year including Glastonbury Festival and even supported ‘The Who’ in Ireland. On July 16th their most recent single ‘Folding Stars’ was released and the band had the honour of supporting ‘The Rolling Stones’ in June/July.
Biffy Clyro’s musical style is often likened to bands such as Nirvana whilst the band themselves note their musical influences as bands like ‘Sunny Day Real Estate’ and ‘Rush’.