Rock band 'flying the flag' for forgotten seaside town

"It's paradise, there's no other word for it," says Ben Sadler of the rock band Getdown Services. He is talking about Minehead, the seaside town which he says is "forgotten" by the music industry, but it's a place he says he owes his global success to.

Getdown Services, who could be the biggest musical act to come out of the Somerset town, are in the middle of a world tour, having already played at the BBC live at Glastonbury last year, and some big support slots, such as opening for Viagra Boys at Alexandra Palace.

The pair met in middle school and started making music early on as "there's not much for young people to do in Minehead", Sadler explained.

"We just want to try and fly the flag for Minehead wherever we go really, as it's a beautiful place," adds his bandmate Josh Law, who is still trying to get his head around their new fame.

"When you have to make your own fun... your sense of humour develops to entertain yourself and I think our sense of humour is very much within the music," Sadler said.

The band are preparing to tour Australia and New Zealand after recently having their lyrics sung back at them across Europe and America.

"Our music is quite British, English really," Law added. "You kind of think, are they going to get it? Maybe they don't get it in the same way, but they get something out of it, and that's quite a cool feeling.

"It's absolutely not lost on us how lucky we are."

Sadler said being able to travel and meet new people through their music was "so fun".

"It's such an insane feeling, and a real privilege," added Law.

At End of the Road festival in September, people were queuing to get into the tent they were playing, while Sharon Van Etten headlined on the main stage.

"It's like, what the hell, why are you here?" said Sadler.

The pair have just performed alongside the likes of Niall Horan and Squeeze on Later... with Jools Holland and announced their second album, Massive Champion.

"We genuinely can't believe our luck," said Law.

As they grow their fanbase, the duo, who now live in Bristol and are signed to the city's indie label Breakfast Records, are using their platform to campaign for fairness in the music industry, especially for independent artists and venues.

"When we have a say in it, we'll play venues that are independent," said Law, adding: "There's more to it than profit."

The guys are set to perform their two biggest headline shows to date at Bristol Beacon on 16 and 17 January 2027.

"It's nice to do a big one and mark some kind of milestone in Bristol where we live," said Law.

The band are also passionate about supporting smaller towns, which they say most acts tend to avoid when touring, especially those that resemble where they grew up.

Sadler said: "The UK is full of seaside towns like [Minehead], like old places of entertainment, that are now really sort of forgotten.

"Wherever you go there's going to be people who want to see bands."

They said Minehead they had no chance to go to gigs growing up.

"There's no music scene or community of people that we felt involved with growing up here so you don't feel sort of tied to a genre or style of music," Law added.

When they were in Year 10 though, a youth centre, which had music practice rooms, was built, called Minehead Eye, and it is where they ended up spending their formative years.

"To have somewhere like this, it felt like there was hope," said Sadler.

"We got hooked on the idea of making our own music literally in this room," Law said as he revisited the space.

Paul Matcham, CEO of Minehead Eye, said it was "amazing" to see the pair succeed.

"Where we began with all this was about giving young people that opportunity to go and achieve, want more, feel that they can," he said.

He added that the duo have sent an inspiring message that can be told to younger generations growing up in Minehead.

Despite the lack of opportunities in the town, the band feel their upbringing was "character-building".

"We record and do everything ourselves and sometimes I wonder whether we would've done that if we had the choice of going to a studio or anything like that," said Sadler.

Law said: "[We had] years and years and years of just playing at, like, village fetes. We played gigs in skittle alleys and stuff where we got asked to stop a few times. And that stuff's character-building."

He added they are proud of coming from Minehead and it's a big part of who they are.

"Bristol doesn't need any more attention, Minehead needs a bit more love I think.

"And places like Minehead need more love," added Sadler.

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