The BBC recently heralded Getdown Services as “possibly the best band/musicians to come out of Minehead.” It’s a bold claim, though a quick look at the Somerset coastal town’s musical exports reveals their fiercest competition mainly consists of esteemed 20th-century cathedral organists like Peter Hurford and John Langdon (or perhaps local pub-rock veterans, Rough Justice). Still, taking the crown as Minehead’s premier synth-punk and pop export is no small feat for the Bristol-based duo of Josh Law and Ben Sadler.
Formed as a lockdown recording project in 2020, Getdown Services have steadily built a fiercely loyal cult following. Armed with a spacebar, infectious grooves, and deadpan lyricism, their trajectory from self-releasing tracks for a renters’ union to signing with Breakfast Records and dropping their acclaimed debut album, Crisps, has been staggering. Now, fresh off a string of sold-out shows and a highly praised appearance on Later… with Jools Holland, the band is gearing up to release their new album, Massive Champion. We caught up with the duo in a hilariously candid Q&A with 6 Music’s Chris Hawkins ahead of their explosive festival set to discuss their “overnight” success, their twenty-year friendship, and the chaotic family dynamics keeping them grounded.
We first discovered the band almost twelve months to the day at Bearded Theory 2025 when their music drew us inexorably to the Woodland Stage. And we were transfixed.
A year later, and they have confirmed our expectations as they have become some of the hottest alternative musical property in the UK.
We caught the band. Before their headline Meadow Stage set for this Q&A with Chris Hawkins from BBC6 Music in a small tent right next to where, for us at least, it all began.
But as they explained this is a 20-year story of friendship and musicianship.
From Math Class to the Main Stage
Before they were a festival-dominating duo, Josh and Ben were just two twelve-year-olds sitting in a math class. With a friendship spanning nearly two decades, their chemistry is built on a deep, shared history that started when Ben moved down to Somerset from Manchester.
“I remember Josh being very tall, very big hair, and he had lots of friends that called him ‘Yeti,'” Ben laughs. “I was a very red-faced, sweaty young man who had recently moved down from Manchester. I was sort of new to the area, didn’t really know anyone, and I was just looking at him like, ‘God, what a guy. I wish I had a nickname. I was just Ben.'”
For Josh, the arrival of the “sweaty young man” from up north was exactly the kind of disruption their hometown needed. “There’s not a lot of people from outside that area,” Josh explains. “Ben moved down from Manchester, and I thought, ‘What is that?’ But in a positive way. I f***ing loved it.”
The Family Circus: Broken Bones, “Nepo Babies,” and Reformed Landlords
If you want to know where Getdown Services get their sharp, irreverent edge, look no further than their families. The duo’s parents frequently pop up at gigs, though attending isn’t always easy given the bizarre string of recent injuries plaguing their mothers.
Josh’s mother, a former stage actor who appeared in The Little Mermaid (prompting Josh to jokingly declare himself a “Nepo baby”), recently ruptured her Achilles tendon and had to attend their Jools Holland taping in a wheelchair. Ben’s mother, meanwhile, broke both of her legs on a holiday in Scotland after falling down a curb.
“My dad took a picture of the hill, and in the picture, you can sort of see my mum lying on her back just out of frame,”Ben deadpans. “He’s like, ‘I’ve got to take a picture of this hill because it’s crazy how much damage this hill has done.’ She’s on the mend, though… She sort of crawls around like a big, lovely, motherly crab.”
Beyond the medical mishaps, Ben’s family tree is a vibrant mix: a 6-foot-9 brother who nurses in the Netherlands, a primary school teacher sister, younger siblings working a crisis helpline, and a retired postman father. But Ben is perhaps most proud of his recent family intervention: bullying his parents out of the property market.
“They retired on the proceeds of them becoming landlords,” Ben says, before quickly adding, “I sort of over years, bullied them out of that. Genuinely, it caused a real divide, and they, in a very positive way, stopped doing that. Now they’re just retired like normal people… You can do the right thing without f***ing the entire economy for everyone else. Consider it. Give it away.”
Refusing to be a “Normal” Band (But Embracing the Banjo)
Despite their current electronic, track-based setup, the duo has deep roots in traditional musicianship. They spent years playing in garage rock outfits, taking things far too seriously, and suffering through grueling soundchecks. Josh even boasts a surprisingly rustic hidden talent.
“I played in a folk band, where I played bass, and I played banjo as well,” Josh reveals to a laughing crowd. “That’s my second thing, banjo. I’m a highly skilled banjo player. That’s not a joke.”
When Getdown Services officially formed, however, they scrapped the traditional instruments entirely. They operate as a two-man vocal and performance powerhouse, backed entirely by a laptop. It’s a formula they swear they will never change, primarily to spare themselves the agony of live drums.
“Have you ever heard a drum kit being sound checked? Just like a constant thwack, thwack,” Josh groans. “Our sound check is Beth [their sound engineer] going down the mics… And then we press play on the spacebar of our laptops! Most people go and get a full band. We will never do that, we’re never going to do it, and you heard it here first.”
Navigating TV, Fame, and Over-Familiar Fans
With their signing to Breakfast Records, the release of their music on vinyl, and the sudden rush of national exposure, the band’s profile has exploded. But with a rising public profile comes the bizarre reality of intense fan recognition.
While the duo is overwhelmingly grateful for their supporters, they admit that parasocial relationships can occasionally cross a line.
“We have made quite a spectacle of ourselves, thinking no one would pay attention,” Ben admits. “Most of the people we meet are really lovely. It’s just that sometimes they can be a bit like, ‘How’s your mum, Dawn?’ You’re like, ‘That’s weird.’ Or messaging my partner on Facebook. You should probably feel a bit weird about doing that.”
The pressure of the spotlight also caught up to them at Glastonbury. Right before their live BBC Two performance, a producer issued a terrifying final warning.
“Just as we were about to go on, they were like, ‘Don’t swear. See you later. Don’t swear, there’s millions of people watching. Action!'” Ben laughs.
The stress caused Ben to briefly forget his lyrics, though Josh swooped in to save the day—only to get the lyrics wrong himself. “I think when we open our mouths on microphone, people just sort of hear a noise, so they don’t really care what happens,” Josh quips.
What’s Next?
As they navigate international touring (admitting they were surprised by how genuinely nice Americans are compared to the “miserable” UK) and prepare for the launch of Massive Champion, Getdown Services remain firmly grounded in their twenty-year bond.
When asked how they will cope if the band continues to scale up, Josh is refreshingly honest:
“We won’t cope, badly. I actually just started therapy recently, because it’s a really odd feeling… But to be serious for a second, we are very close with each other, we are quite good at looking after each other. If it does continue to get bigger, I’m sure we’ll be alright.”
Getdown Services’ new album, Massive Champion, is out on August 14th.
