They are tipped to be the next big thing in music but British group The Vamps, on their maiden trip to India, say they were really surprised to see fans queuing up to meet them.
The pop rock band consists of lead vocalist Bradley Simpson, lead guitarist James McVey, bass guitarist Connor Ball and Tristan Evans on the drums and rose to fame in late 2012 with cover songs.
The breakthrough came with their debut single Can We Dance, which received over 1 million views within two weeks of its release.
The group has collaborated with music composers Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani on Beliya, which is already a hit on YouTube.
“We had seen few tweets from our Indian fans but we really had no idea about the fan following. When we arrived here it was a nice surprise. There were quite a lot fans at the airport. We are hopefully going to do an India tour next year,” said Simpson.
The band, which is in India for an eight-day trip, will perform in Mumbai with Vishal-Shekhar on Beliya.
When asked whether there were any other collaborations happening in India as Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn recently teased a possibility of teaming up with the group, McVey said, “We may, we are planning to do something together.”
The group admitted that they did not know much about Bollywood before Beliya but are happy to have explored new territory with this song.
“We are very lucky that we have done two world tours so far. This collaboration is a real opportunity for us because it is allowing us to visit new territory like India. We can always come back and do more shows. We are grateful for this relationship,” said Evans.
Simpson added, “We did not really know much about Bollywood culture before we came here. It’s something that we are very interested in and we are learning about the culture.”
“It was a great experience. It was nice to blend two languages together,” said Ball.
Dadlani said the popularity of The Vamps is similar to the following which One Direction enjoyed during the beginning of their career.
“The kind of love that I have seen for these guys probably one would imagine that to have happened for One Direction when they took off or other boybands like Take That or Boyzone. Although these guys are a real band. They don’t just get up on stage and just do music. There is legitimacy to their music,” said Dadlani.
Ravjiani said that it was a learning experience to work with the group. “Working with them was fun. We got to exchange ideas. We learnt a lot from each other. I don’t know how the song was made because we were eating and playing pool all the time.”
