The Vamps star James McVey reveals 'spiralling' as he details mental health struggles

James Brittain-McVey will be best known to music fans as part of The Vamps, but the singer is also a keen advocate for mental health. James, 31, has been open about his own struggles in the past.

He had previously told The Mirror how he had started spiralling amid the pandemic. He told The Mirror's Men in Mind podcast: "I'd started spiralling into this position of being ‘Oh, I'm doomed..my career could be over.’ And those feelings of uncertainty paired with an increase in my alcohol and cannabis consumption, saw things get pretty intense."

Now James is speaking out about his own mental health to encourage others to do the same. The singer is working with Julia's House, a charity of which he is a patron, to raise vital funds for the hospice, which supports seriously ill children and their families across Dorset and Wiltshire.

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James is joining Julia’s House CEO Martin Edwards as he completes 20 challenges in his 20th year as the charity's CEO. As part of this, James has offered to get another (of many) tattoos alongside Martin, who will be having his first tattoo.

"As I got older, I realised how integral they were in the community. It's been a permanent fixture in my school time memories but as I've been able to do more with The Vamps over the years, I've been able to raise awareness and shine the light on this hospice and what it does," he told us exclusively of working with the charity.

James has also gifted a guitar, which he has had for years and used for songwriting, world tours and moments with his band The Vamps, which is being put in a prize draw and a lucky fan who donates to the charity will become the new proud owner.

Openly discussing his own mental health, James tells us: "I've been adamant for my whole life and my whole career with the band to try to carry on conveying the message that I'm a normal kid from Dorset who got lucky and started a band, and it worked. I want to try and humanise the people that other people aspire to look up to and are influenced by.

"I've been speaking about mental health for a long time, but if I had a couple of people I looked up to be so open and vocal about their mental health when I was 12 or 13, I think that would have been really beneficial to me."

He added: "I tried my best to always say when things are going great, to celebrate that, and humanise people in the industry because I don't like the them and us mentality between fanbases and artists.

"I've been very fortunate that I've got a good safety net around me. I've had very supportive management, which is very rare in my industry. I have really supportive and stable parents back home, and I've been with my wife for 10 years, and all these things have contributed to me feeling like there are people there if I struggle."

James went on to explain that feeling disconnected from his success or from the fans is what has caused him to struggle. He explained: "The moments in my life when I've really felt disconnected with the fans or with the opportunity I've had. When I disconnect with recognising that is probably when I've spiralled the most mental health wise.

"A lot of people get sucked into that hysteria and think they're amazing. I had the opposite of that. It's the moments I turned my back on that and when I get to the stage of I don't want to do this, that's when I've struggled."

*James will play the final date of his solo tour in London on Wednesday evening.

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