JAMES McVEY has gone solo after more than a decade in The Vamps.
The lead guitarist and singer said he was inspired by a terrifying experience which saw him almost lose his voice forever.
He suffered a haemorrhaged growth on his vocal cords and had to have surgery earlier this year, prompting him to write Dancing On The Head Of A Needle, which came out on Friday.
The former I’m A Celeb campmate said: “Around the time that I wrote this song, people who were really close to me were going through things of their own, and because I was so far down this dark road after losing my voice, I was unable to acknowledge that I needed to be there for them.
“It’s a bit like my apology to the people I let down, but also to myself, for not being able to see the warning signs. I was deteriorating into a place that was almost too far down to reach.”
In February he was ordered to stay silent for three weeks after finding the lesion on his vocal cords but his health issues persisted and it eventually had to be treated.
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With The Vamps he has released four albums, played arena tours and had hit singles including Wild Heart, Last Night and Can We Dance.
However, they have insisted they haven’t split up and are just pursuing their own projects before working on their next album, having only recently completed a tour.
Speaking to The Sun last year, James said: "It's really important that for us, there's no personal issues or animosity with anything anyone is doing.
"It's not like a power struggle for musical satisfaction, kudos or credibility.
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"There's a strong Vamps strategy and alongside that there will be other things. The last thing we want fans to think is that we are divided and hate each other. It's not like that.
"Things will come from probably all of us I imagine at some point, in various ways."
His bandmate Brad Simpson added: "We are all working on separate things.
"We're all into different types of music so it's nice to explore those different avenues and I actually think that's going to be really interesting when we come back to writing."
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