Putting Getdown Services in the seated, lecture hall-like space of the Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room makes no sense. The gloriously chaotic, speak-sing-disco-rock-whatever project of Bristolian besties Josh Law and Ben Sadler, the duo played one of their first shows as a glorified karaoke wedding gig and have since become one of the UK’s most talked about new bands by virtue of their uncontainable, sweaty and delirious live presence. Like the opposite of a Love Island match, their booking as part of Harry Styles’ Meltdown Festival line-up is not their type on paper.
Law and Sadler, walking out to the sounds of Status Quo in sports-casual T-shirts and shorts, are keenly aware of the discrepancy. “Hello seated room! We’re not doing music tonight, we’re just gonna talk about our dark past. Anyone got a dark past? How’s this crowd work doing?” they riff back and forth with the sort of jovial piss-taking that suggests a night of Getdown stand up would actually be a fine thing. “Has anyone not seen us before? You’ve picked the worst one. This is mental. It’s like Question Time without the questions…”
