The Midnight Beast

Reception

Their tracks frequently chart on iTunes, with one album reaching number two on the platform’s music charts, and many of their music videos regularly surpass one million views on YouTube. The group has also partnered with BBC Comedy, MTV Rocks, Sky Arts, Vimeo Originals, and Universal Pictures on various video projects. The paper pointed to lines like “One up the bum and it’s no harm done” and “One up the bum and you won’t be a mum,” arguing the song seemed to promote anal sex as a form of birth control, and noted that unnamed critics felt the video ignored the risk of STI transmission through anal sex. On April 4, 2019, the group re-released their “TikTok” parody to mark the tenth anniversary of its original debut.

Members

He was born and grew up in Fulham, London with his parents (both of whom are musicians) and his two brothers, Kyle and Tcha. Abingdon learned piano from age six until he was asked to leave by his teacher because he did not practice enough. By age 12, Stefan was playing the guitar, and a week later he started his first band named Ink. His next band, called Icarus Burning, started when he was 12 with another boy, Simon Childs, and fellow founder Dru Wakely on drums.

Years after, Stefan had started another band asking Maya Yianni (vocals) and Henry Bauckham (bass) to join. They went under the name, The Clik Clik; Dru joined at a later date after finishing college. After a few years the band called it a day and so Stefan and Dru started a new project which turned out to be called Perfect People. This was Stefan's final band before The Midnight Beast.

As well as a songwriter he is now also the lead singer of the band Cast of Lions. He grew up in Wandsworth, South-West London. It's unclear whether the story of his father running off with the family's Spanish cleaner on Christmas Eve (as told in the song "Daddy") is true. The story goes that the loss of his father led to a Calpol addiction and he described his teenage years as "a fine blend of drunken brawls, unsuccessful robbery attempts, and casual sex".

He met Stefan Abingdon at a local drama group. Dru said he was interested in playing drums in Stefan's band (even though he had no experience). He auditioned to Abingdon on a wooden box they found in the street. His first band was known as Icarus Burning and was also a member of Perfect People and The Clik Clik.

He was the second member of The Midnight Beast, as Ashley was not fully convinced to join until the last minute. As well as being in the Beast, Dru is a self-confessed 'HipHop head' and does his own songwriting and music production.

Sitcom

The show follows a fictional version of the group trying to make it as musicians. Actors Simon Farnaby, Ryan Pope, and Sophie Wu also appeared. After the second series ended, the band released The Unholy Trinity on iTunes, which included three songs from the show that were not on the accompanying album.