IT'S been a whirlwind couple of years for the Vamps.

 

The pop foursome have rocketed to playing arena dates, with two nights at the Hydro lined up this weekend.

And guitarist James McVey admits the lads have still yet to take it all in.

"It's quite weird, because I don't think it's hit us yet what's happened," he says.

"It only seems like two minutes ago that we were playing the ABC in Glasgow for our first single, doing a little acoustic tour, and now we're at the Hydro.

"It's quite a big step up but I'm lucky in that I know the other guys are amazing musically, and there's nothing to worry about there - I just need to up my game to keep up."

The quartet's cheerful pop has already delivered hits like Wild Heart and Can We Dance, and last year's debut Meet The Vamps album reached No 2 in the charts, while they're teen heartthrobs to a legion of female fans.

Yet James reckon they've been able to keep their feet on the ground, as they don't want to be like some of the characters they've encountered on the way up.

"I think it's important to stay grounded, and be polite to be those around you, because you don't always get that in the industry," adds the guitarist, who formed the Vamps with singer Brad Simpson.

"You need to keep on chatting to fans on the interact and be interactive, that was so important for us.

"There were people really rude and dismissive to us, and we still get that every day. It's fine though, we'll just carry on doing what we're doing."

While this arena run of shows will focus on last year's first album, the boys are already readying plans for a second record, and after this tour they'll be heading to Los Angeles to finish it off.

They're taking inspiration from a few different sources, too.

"We want to keep the essence of what the Vamps is, so there's still lots of guitars," says James.

"We're experimenting with some synths though, and we're writing more in the direction of what's happening now in the music industry, so there's elements of guys like Avicii.

"On the other hand we're looking at guys like Sting and the stuff he did with the Police - the rhythms and some of the guitar work that's on there (by Andy Summers) are great."

Yet while James now spends his nights bounding around huge venues and playing to screaming crowds, it wasn't always so spectacular.

Earlier this year he spoke about being bullied at school, and gave advice to young fans on how to cope with it.

"I think people, and certainly our fans, maybe think that people in bands are immune to all that," he says.

"Everyone goes through things like that though, and if I can help out then I'd like to do that.

"Being in a band kinda forced me to improve my confidence, just by going onstage every night, so it's been good in that sense."

And going onstage in Glasgow this weekend should come as another highlight, especially with bassist Connor Ball coming from Scotland too.

"Connor's from Aberdeen so he obviously enjoys coming back up to Scotland, but we've found that even from day one Glasgow has had a lot of fans for us," he adds.

"Glasgow, Manchester and London are the cities that have always supported us from the start, so they're always good to play."

Just don't expect James to be hitting the town afterwards, or getting into any wild rock n' roll scrapes.

"We've been out in Glasgow for nights out, but I don't drink anymore, so I tend to stay in now," he says.

"I'm a bit boring, to be honest! It's more a cup of tea for me afterwards, than anything else."

The Vamps, SSE Hydro, Friday/Saturday £9.50 -£79,6.30pm