Watch: Telford's Exotic Zoo owner teams up with music teacher for coronavirus message in song
The owner of Telford's Exotic Zoo has starred in a teacher's latest 'lockdown' music video, with the duo recording a special coronavirus parody song.
Ben Millington, who is head of music at Telford Priory School, has teamed up with students, fellow teachers and local musicians for the past fortnight to entertain social media fans with a series of videos posted daily on Facebook.
He says it has provided a welcome distraction in the days of self-isolation and he has been inundated with requests from people wanting to get involved.
The videos have had thousands of views, and one of his latest efforts has seen him reunite with former bandmate and zoo owner Scott Adams.
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The pair, together with Darrell Smith and Ryan Mortier, previously formed rock band Envy Of The State, which has toured internationally and played at many festivals – including Download.
The group still performs at the popular Devils Ball music event in Telford, but the pandemic has given the band's drummer Ben and lead singer Scott another reason to get together.
"You hear on the news that some people are not listening to the messages and are still gathering in parks," said Ben, who lives in Lilleshall, near Newport.
"We wanted to do something light-hearted with a serious message."
The duo's song, which has already been viewed more than 6,000 times on Facebook, carries the important message to 'stay – and rock – at home' during the coronavirus pandemic.
In their original catchy parody to the tune of Rocks by Primal Scream, Ben can be seen playing instruments from his home studio while Scott provides the vocals.
Ben said: "Each video has been a bit different and I wanted to do a rocky song.
"I came up with doing a Primal Scream song and we came up with the words together.
"It's amazing that it has had 6,000 views already."
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The father-of-one, who turned 37 last week, also teamed up with two teachers on his birthday to produce their own version of Anne-Marie's song 2002.
Meanwhile, his other videos have seen him collaborate with his ex-bandmate Ben Burdall, who is the lead singer for SkaBurst.
After uploading his first solo lockdown video online, where he recreated the melody to Billie Eilish's Bad Guy using glasses and cups filled with water, his students were also eager to get involved.
Refusing to let the lockdown spoil their fun and learning, they teamed up together to create their own music video singing Elton John's I'm Still Standing.
Ben filmed the initial video as a way of cheering them up when their tour and end-of-year concert got cancelled, but a fortnight later he is still uploading videos daily to Facebook and the interest from social media fans is growing.
"I enjoy all the comments that are coming back," Ben said.
"It's putting a smile on people's faces."