--- title: "Skream and Benga: Real Names, Big Apple, Magnetic Man and the Drumsheds Day" description: "Skream is Oliver Jones, Benga is Adegbenga Adejumo, both 40 in 2026. Big Apple, Magnetic Man, the reunion and the DIA/LOG day at Drumsheds on 17 October." author: "MNEEMO (Yaroslav Gorovoy)" section: "The World" published: "2026-10-12T08:00:00Z" modified: "2026-10-12T08:00:00Z" canonical: "https://www.mneemo.com/blog/skream-benga-real-names-dubstep-drumsheds-2026/" --- # Skream and Benga: Real Names, Big Apple, Magnetic Man and the Drumsheds Day _Skream is Oliver Jones, Benga is Adegbenga Adejumo, both 40 in 2026. Big Apple, Magnetic Man, the reunion and the DIA/LOG day at Drumsheds on 17 October._ ![Skream in headphones and a Beatles T-shirt behind the decks in front of an LED wall at Spring Awakening, Chicago, 2015](https://www.mneemo.com/assets/blog/skream-benga-real-names-dubstep-drumsheds-2026/hero.jpg?v=8c373429) **Skream's real name is Oliver Dene Jones, born 1 June 1986 in West Wickham. Benga's real name is Adegbenga Otomayomi Adejumo, born 1 September 1986 in Clapton and raised in Croydon. They met as teenagers in the Big Apple record shop on Croydon's Surrey Street, built dubstep from it, went to number five in the album chart as Magnetic Man, split for a decade, and on Saturday 17 October 2026 they curate the first Spotify DIA/LOG at Drumsheds: a 31-name bill across three rooms, from LTJ Bukem and Digital Mystikz to Flowdan, 13:00 to 22:30.** This is the story of both men in one place: the names, the shop, the records that defined a genre at 140 BPM, the breakdown that ended Benga's first career, the reunion at fabric, the album they have been recording since January 2025, and what a Skream and Benga day at a 14,999-capacity former IKEA actually looks like. ## Skream and Benga at a glance - **Skream:** Oliver Dene Jones, born 1 June 1986, West Wickham, Bromley. Started producing at 15 on FL Studio. Midnight Request Line (2005), Skream! (2006), Outside the Box (2010). Since 2013 mostly house and disco, with the Skreamizm three-hour sets. 40 in 2026. - **Benga:** Adegbenga Otomayomi Adejumo, born 1 September 1986, Clapton, raised in Croydon, of Yoruba Nigerian descent. Debut Skank on Big Apple Records in 2002 at 15. Night with Coki (2007), Diary of an Afro Warrior (2008), Chapter II (2013). Produced Katy B's Katy on a Mission, a UK number five in 2010. 40 in 2026. - **Together:** Magnetic Man, with Artwork, formed 2007; the 2010 album reached number five in the UK and I Need Air number ten. Reunited at fabric in 2023 after ten years; a collaborative album announced in January 2025, with the singles Good Things Come To Those Who Wait in June 2025 and Midnight Control, featuring Emily Makis, in November 2025. - **The date:** Spotify DIA/LOG with Skream & Benga, Drumsheds, Saturday 17 October 2026, 13:00 to 22:30, 18+, X, Y and Z rooms. ## Big Apple Records, Croydon, and the two names Every history of dubstep runs through one shop. Big Apple Records in Croydon was where Hatcha worked, where Artwork made records upstairs, and where two teenagers found each other: Oliver Jones, whose brother worked on an adjacent floor, and Benga Adejumo, who discovered the music through the shop and released his debut, Skank, on its label in 2002 at 15. Jones was already producing at 15 too, on FL Studio in his bedroom, and the two started putting records out together through Big Apple almost immediately. The names came with the territory. Skream was a tag, one word, the way garage producers had aliases; Benga is a shortening of his own first name, Adegbenga, which makes him one of the few artists in this series whose stage name is also his real one. The music they made there was the sound of UK garage's darker instrumentals slowed into halftime at 140 BPM, the tempo I mapped in [the UK garage BPM guide](https://www.mneemo.com/blog/uk-garage-bpm-tempo-guide-2026/): 2-step with the vocals removed and the sub turned up. Skream's Midnight Request Line, in 2005, is the record that took it out of Croydon, dubstep's most recognisable crossover hit, and the self-titled Skream! album in 2006 is still one of the defining documents of the early scene. Benga's answer was Night, with Coki, in 2007, a record so loud in the clubs that it scraped the UK singles chart the next year, and then Diary of an Afro Warrior in 2008, which Resident Advisor called "one of the most anticipated LPs in dubstep yet". ## Magnetic Man: dubstep goes to number five In 2007 the two of them and Artwork formed Magnetic Man, the live project that took the sound to the charts. The 2010 album peaked at number five in the UK, and I Need Air, with Angela Hunte, reached number ten, which for a genre built in a record shop basement was a strange and complete victory. The same year Benga produced Katy on a Mission for Katy B, a UK number five, and Skream released Outside the Box. For about eighteen months dubstep was British pop, and the two men from Big Apple were the centre of it. What happened next is the part people forget. ## The split, and what Benga went through Skream moved on first. From 2013 he stopped playing dubstep almost entirely and turned to house and disco, launching the Skreamizm tour of three-hour club sets and becoming, for the next decade, a house DJ who used to be a dubstep producer. Benga released Chapter II on Sony in 2013 and then, on 2 February 2014, announced his retirement, citing his engagement and plans for a family. In September 2015 he said publicly that the real reason was his mental health: he was sectioned in March 2014, and has talked about excessive touring leading to schizophrenia. He came back in 2018 with a record called Psychosis, on his own Illuminate label, whose title tells you how directly he chose to deal with it. It is one of the more honest arcs in British dance music, and it is why the reunion mattered to people who had not thought about dubstep in years. ## The reunion: fabric, an album, and Drumsheds In 2023 Skream, Benga and SGT Pokes, the MC who had been the third voice on their early sets, played together at fabric for the first time in ten years. In January 2025 the two announced a collaborative album, their first since Magnetic Man, from Miloco Studios in London, and released Good Things Come To Those Who Wait in June 2025, with a second single, Midnight Control, featuring the vocalist Emily Makis, in November 2025. The album itself was still unnamed and undated at the time of writing; the joint social account has been the place the snippets land. Drumsheds is the biggest statement of the reunion so far. Spotify DIA/LOG is a new live series created by Spotify and the venue, "built around artists whose sounds, histories, or instincts have something to say", and the first one is Skream and Benga curating a whole day: Saturday 17 October 2026, 13:00 to 22:30, across the X, Y and Z rooms. The venue lists the bill A to Z: Bad Behli, Carré, D Double E, Dangermami, Digital Mystikz, Emily Makis, Flava D, Flowdan, Formella, Greg, Jakes, Jammer, Jaz Imsky, LTJ Bukem, MJ Cole, Nitepunk, Nolay, Pangaea, Plastician, Rohaan, SBTRKT DJ, Sensu, SGT Pokes, Shy FX ft. MC Rage, Skalah, Skream & Benga, Special Request, Spyro, Surusinghe, Vee and Yungfya. ![A crowd in silhouette against a wall of red light at Drumsheds in Tottenham, phones raised towards the stage](https://www.mneemo.com/assets/blog/skream-benga-real-names-dubstep-drumsheds-2026/img-01.jpg?v=2b3d8db1) *FIG. 02 · Drumsheds. On 17 October the X Room belongs to Croydon.* Read that list as a map of everything dubstep came from and led to. LTJ Bukem is the jungle end, the tempo dubstep halved. MJ Cole is UK garage, the genre it grew out of. Plastician and SGT Pokes are Big Apple's own generation, and Digital Mystikz, Mala and Coki, are the DMZ side of the founding story, with Coki the other name on Night. D Double E, Flowdan, Jammer and Spyro are grime, the MC music that shared the 140 tempo and the same south and east London postcodes. Shy FX and Special Request are the breakbeat lineage; Flava D and Jakes the bassline and bass-house wave that followed; Pangaea the Hessle Audio side that took the sound somewhere colder; SBTRKT, Nitepunk and Surusinghe the producers who grew up on it. Mike Skinner, who plays The Warehouse Project in November with A Grand Don't Come For Free, is not on the venue's current listing. The day is a conversation about a tempo, which is what DIA/LOG says it is. ## How to do the Skream and Benga day at Drumsheds - **Times.** 13:00 to 22:30, the standard [Drumsheds Saturday](https://www.mneemo.com/blog/drumsheds-2026-season-lineup-dates-tickets/). The venue had not printed a price at the time of writing; buy on the official channel and expect the tiers to climb. - **Rooms.** Three. The venue lists the bill alphabetically and had not published a room split at the time of writing; my guess is the headliners and the grime in X, the jungle and breaks in Y, the newer producers in Z. Check the set times on the day. - **The ending.** 22:30 on a Saturday leaves the night open; the [October club calendar](https://www.mneemo.com/blog/october-2026-club-nights-london-manchester/) has what pairs with it, and fabric's Friday FABRICLIVE 27th birthday the night before is the bass warm-up. - **Travel.** Meridian Water station is about five minutes on foot; the £5 return shuttle runs from Tottenham Hale on event days. The address is 6 Glover Drive, N18 3HF. ## Why Skream and Benga matter in 2026 Dubstep is the British genre that went furthest and came back least, and these two are the reason both halves of that sentence are true. They built the sound in a shop, took it to number five and watched it become a global caricature, and then did the thing almost nobody in dance music does: stopped. Skream became a house DJ, and the UK bass wave behind producers like [Hamdi](https://www.mneemo.com/blog/hamdi-skanka-uk-bass-producer-2026/), the music that replaced dubstep in the UK's big rooms, owes its swing to the same Croydon records. Benga went through something most careers do not survive and came back with the title of the record telling you what it was. A Drumsheds day curated by the two of them, with the grime MCs and the jungle originals and the producers they influenced all on one bill, is the closest thing to a museum of the sound that will ever happen at 140 BPM in front of 14,999 people. Go for the history; stay for Night on a d&b audiotechnik system. ## FAQ **What is Skream's real name?** Oliver Dene Jones. He was born on 1 June 1986 in West Wickham, in the London Borough of Bromley, and came up through Big Apple Records in Croydon. **What is Benga's real name?** Adegbenga Otomayomi Adejumo. He was born on 1 September 1986 in Clapton, east London, and grew up in Croydon; his stage name is taken from his first name. **How old are Skream and Benga?** Both turned 40 in 2026: Skream on 1 June and Benga on 1 September. **What is Magnetic Man?** The live project Skream, Benga and Artwork formed in 2007. Their self-titled 2010 album reached number five on the UK Albums Chart and the single I Need Air reached number ten. **Why did Benga retire in 2014?** He announced his retirement on 2 February 2014, citing family plans, and in September 2015 said the real reason was his mental health; he was sectioned in March 2014 and has said excessive touring led to schizophrenia. He returned in 2018 with the record Psychosis on his Illuminate label. **Are Skream and Benga making an album?** Yes. They announced a collaborative album, their first since Magnetic Man, in January 2025, and released the singles Good Things Come To Those Who Wait in June 2025 and Midnight Control, featuring Emily Makis, in November 2025. The album's title and release date had not been announced at the time of writing. **What is Spotify DIA/LOG at Drumsheds?** A new live event series created by Spotify and Drumsheds, built around artists in conversation with the genres around them. The first edition, curated by Skream and Benga, is on Saturday 17 October 2026, 13:00 to 22:30, across three rooms. **Who is playing with Skream and Benga at Drumsheds?** The venue lists LTJ Bukem, Digital Mystikz, SBTRKT DJ, Shy FX ft. MC Rage, Flava D, Spyro, D Double E, Flowdan, Jammer, MJ Cole, Pangaea, Plastician, Special Request, SGT Pokes, Nitepunk, Emily Makis, Jakes, Nolay, Rohaan, Surusinghe, Bad Behli, Carré, Dangermami, Formella, Greg, Jaz Imsky, Sensu, Skalah, Vee and Yungfya. **What time does the Skream and Benga Drumsheds event finish?** 22:30. Doors are at 13:00, the event is 18+, and Meridian Water station is a five-minute walk from the venue. ## Sources - Wikipedia entries for Skream and Benga; Official Charts Company data for the Magnetic Man, Night and Katy on a Mission chart peaks - Drumsheds official event listing for Spotify DIA/LOG with Skream & Benga; Clash, Music Week and London x London on the DIA/LOG launch - EDM.com and Exron Music on the January 2025 album announcement and the 2025 singles; Wikipedia on the 2023 fabric reunion, Benga's 2014 retirement and 2015 disclosure, and Midnight Control This profile is part of House of MNEEMO's ongoing coverage of the electronic and club music scene, written by London-based DJ and producer MNEEMO, with millions of streams to his name and a party series running through some of London's best clubs. For every date of the season they are playing into, read the [Drumsheds season guide](https://www.mneemo.com/blog/drumsheds-2026-season-lineup-dates-tickets/). --- Source: https://www.mneemo.com/blog/skream-benga-real-names-dubstep-drumsheds-2026/ · © HOUSE OF MNEEMO. Written by MNEEMO (Yaroslav Gorovoy).