Bradley Will "Brad" Simpson (born 28 July 1995) is from Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, England. He sings lead vocals and plays guitar. Simpson met James McVey via YouTube in 2012 (McVey's profile says 2011) and began working on their debut album soon after.
Connor Samuel John Ball (né Stephen, born 15 March 1996 in Aberdeen, Scotland) is from Hatton, Warwickshire, England. He plays bass guitar and sings backing vocals. He was the last to join the band.
James McVey was already managed by Richard Rashman and Joe O'Neill of Prestige Management. Deciding he wanted to form a band, McVey subsequently discovered Bradley Simpson in 2011 through YouTube. Together, the pair wrote songs towards the later months of 2011, with Simpson later becoming lead singer. In 2012, Simpson and McVey met Tristan Evans through Facebook. The trio then met Connor Ball via a mutual friend. In mid-2012, the band started uploading cover songs to their YouTube channel. By October they were being described as a new boy band, with special attention given to their YouTube performance of One Direction's song "Live While We're Young". Strong fan support helped bring them wide notice.
The group have been compared to One Direction and labelled a boy band since their first fame in late 2012, a label which continued to be applied in 2014. The band disagree with the stereotyping, pointing to the fact that they formed by themselves—they are not the product of a record producer—and they play their own instruments.
The Vamps supported McFly on their Memory Lane Tour in April and May 2013, and Selena Gomez at London's Hammersmith Apollo on 7 and 8 September 2013. In October, it was announced that The Vamps would support Taylor Swift on the London leg of her Red Tour in February 2014, and The Wanted on the UK and Ireland leg of their Word of Mouth World Tour from 14 March to 1 April. On 12 February 2014, the band announced that they will be headlining their own UK tour in September and October 2014.
On 4 November 2014, Meet the Vamps was officially released in North America and on 1 December 2014, the album was re-released as Meet the Vamps (Christmas Edition) including 8 Christmas bonus tracks and the single version of "Somebody to You", being available worldwide apart from the United States and Mexico.
In December 2015, The Vamps announced they had signed the British band New Hope Club and that they would be one of the opening acts in the UK leg of their Wake Up World Tour.
On 20 October 2016, The Vamps released their autobiography The Vamps: Our Story 100% Official, which had been announced months earlier.
"Middle of the Night", a collaboration with Danish DJ Martin Jensen was announced as the second single of the album on 21 April 2017 and was released on 28 April 2017, the same day their Middle of the Night Tour started. During the first show of the tour, it was announced that the name of their third album is Night & Day and will be released in two parts. The first part, Night Edition, was released on 14 July 2017 and the second one, Day Edition, in December 2017. On 3 May 2017, a video explaining more about the album was uploaded on their social media. On 19 May 2017, Swedish DJ Mike Perry released "Hands", a collaboration between himself, The Vamps and American singer Sabrina Carpenter that was included on the album. The band released the single "Personal" featuring Maggie Lindemann on 13 October 2017.
