There was a point a few years back where Biffy Clyro seemed so futureless that frontman Simon Neil wrote them a suicide note. “It’s basically about just deciding to f*** this life off and go and see what’s around the other corner,” the tattooed, shirt-allergic singer says of an emotional new track titled simply, “Goodbye”. “It was like, ‘if this band was going to end, there’s nothing else’. It’s the thought of losing everything.”
From the beaming, chattering typhoon of charm, hugs and goodwill that whips into the plush penthouse office of their record label’s London HQ – as Simon and his bandmates, twin brothers James and Ben Johnston, billow out of the Tube strike traffic – it seems inconceivable that such a cheerful and successful band might ever go even fractionally Gallagher. Since the Kilmarnock trio bridged the yawning gap between hardcore rock and the mainstream with breakthrough albums such as Puzzle (2007) and Only Revolutions (2009), their story has epitomised the modern rock fantasy.
