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Becky Pell

@rocknroll_yogi

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🧘‍♀️Wellbeing on tour
🎤 Monitor engineer(Take That; Pussycat Dolls; Queen + Adam Lambert)
🙏 Yoga therapist
💃 Creating safe spaces for great adventures

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Don’t be fooled by the ‘amazing’ lives you see on the socials into thinking that’s the whole story. I guarantee you, it’s not.

I’m fully aware that my own life might look pretty glamorous at first glance. I want to make sure I’m keeping it very real by being clear about what it takes.

Yes, I get to travel the world and regularly mix sound for huge gigs in places that would otherwise be a once-in-a-lifetime visit. That’s a huge privilege and was my ambition since the age of 12. I’m extremely fortunate to have made it in my chosen career.

And here are some bits of my life you might find less appealing:

My average working day now, at the height of my career, is 14 hours. That’s considered ‘country club’ in this business. I have worked a LOT of hundred hour weeks, and within the last six months have worked 26 hour days and had 90 minutes of sleep in a night to make the show happen.

I don’t have kids. That’s by choice, but my career would have been a very different experience if I’d wanted them.

I haven’t had a home for a year. We sold our last place and there’s been no point finding anywhere else because we’ve been on the road. When you see pictures in a ‘home’ environment, it’s a temporary Air B&B or someone who’s been kind enough to host us. I live out of a suitcase at the moment and most of my belongings are in storage.

I’m rarely able to commit to plans with friends because I often have no clue what I’ll be doing in three months and need to leave myself open.

Sometimes I’m lucky enough to tour with my husband. Other times we don’t see each other for months.

I’m freelance, which I adore. It also means that my professional reputation is everything because I’m only as good as my last gig and I have no job security.

Still think it sounds glamorous?

All of this is stuff I willingly accept. For the most part I went into this knowing the sacrifices and Faustian pacts required to make my dreams reality, and the massive instability that comes with great freedom. I chose this way of life and I have no regrets.

But don’t ever think that what you see about peoples’ lives on here is the whole picture.

Because I guarantee you, it’s not. by @rocknroll_yogi

I was asked yesterday how I don’t get freaked out mixing big shows. I get an adrenaline rush for sure, but I don’t get freaked out, and there are solid, probably quite boring reasons for that.

First, I didn’t get here overnight. I didn’t start mixing big gigs until I’d mixed a LOT of smaller gigs and been a tech for more experienced engineers on a LOT of bigger ones. It was a steady progression over many years; by the time I mixed my first headline stadium in 2010 - 15 years after starting out at @rgjones.soundengineering as a warehouse assistant - I was sufficiently competent and ready for that step. I’m all for challenges, but the challenge HAS to be appropriate to the stage of development and experience, otherwise you’re set up to fail. Slow and steady wins the race.

Secondly, the 7 P’s: proper planning and preparation prevent piss poor performance 😁. The work starts long before the gig in getting info together. Come show day I’m very diligent about checks and spares and plan B’s. Yes unforeseen things can happen and I have to think fast, but I do everything in my power to manage potential problems.

I mentally rehearse and make sure I know what I should be doing at all times.

During the gig my eyes don’t leave the stage. I’m always keenly aware of my next cue and have reminders on my console snapshots. The musicians all have talk mics which are in my ears at all times should they need something. It’s intense concentration for the duration of the show, I can’t let my mind wander. (No surprise that meditation helps with that 😉). I’m not on edge - just very present and in a state of relaxed alertness.

Golden rule: tiny club or massive stadium, doesn’t matter, ‘just do your normal gig’. Good prep then just do the next step.

And, I work with a great team, both in audio and the rest of the crew. It’s important that I have a monitor tech I can rely on, as I can’t leave the console during the show. I’m lucky to work with some great techs who have my back technically, respond quickly, and best of all, I get on well with! 😃

That’s how mixing huge shows is not only a privilege but great fun! by @rocknroll_yogi

Let’s go girl… heading straight from São Paulo with the Dolls into London rehearsals load-in for a new project 🤪 Better woman up! 💃

It’s been fantastic touring with not only female artists, but so many women on the crew, with our production manager Sarah Hollis and co-ordinator Alice Martin steering the ship so brilliantly, Dani Chavez in management, of course working alongside Emma-Jane Lee on RF, and with wonderful women in almost every department.

There’s still a hell of a long way to go on a societal level, but I’ve been in this business for three decades and I’m seeing more and more smart, accomplished, capable women in touring. It’s epic to have been one of the first and gradually see it growing over the years, with so many more of us stepping into ALL the roles on the road.

Let’s go girls! 🔥 by @rocknroll_yogi

Brazil was a VIBE! It’s always a bagful of unknowns and challenges when you take a big show overseas and do it without your touring production package, but thanks to the expertise and extremely hard work of the crew we pulled it off 🤘

The job of monitors is to recreate the artist’s safe space to deliver their performance no matter where we are, and I couldn’t do it without the support of our fantastic RF tech Emma-Jane Lee @lee_emmajane. Absolutely top notch planning, foresight, diligence and delivery as always 👏

@pussycatdolls
@backstage.mirante by @rocknroll_yogi

My safest space and greatest adventure ❤️ So grateful to get to mix these shows together. by @rocknroll_yogi

I made a ton of mistakes so you don’t have to 😁 My latest for Live Sound International, link in bio. by @rocknroll_yogi

What would you create, if you stopped waiting for permission?

There’s no such thing as a non-creative human - it’s inherently what we are. (And yes, sometimes what we create is an unholy mess on a grand scale.) It’s how we communicate, how we express what’s on the inside. It’s how we connect.

But somewhere along the way we often lose touch with that creative spirit of childhood. We get railroaded into being obedient little consumers. Commodified into believing that creativity is only permissible if it’s done professionally and can therefore be capitalised upon. We lose confidence in our inner voice, our own tastes, and start following the trends that we’re told will make us acceptable. We start looking like everyone else. We become sausage factory facsimiles of humans, no longer even knowing who we really are without all the noise.

Thankfully there’s a simple way back.

What if I asked you what you do for fun? What makes you feel free, and alive? What makes you lose track of time, and inhibitions, and all the fucks you’ve been trained to give about other tamed humans’ opinions?

Can you even remember?

Well, what did you love to do when you were, say, six?

What if you were to untame yourself, and go do some of THAT? How might THAT feel?

What if you stopped waiting for permission to unleash yourself, and instead found your way back to the inherently creative expression of life that you were when you were six?

What if you reconnected with the unique expression of life force which, underneath all the noise and conditioning, you still are?

What would you create, if you stopped waiting for permission?

📸 Stumbling upon creativity alive and well in Sao Paolo, Brazil. by @rocknroll_yogi

Time to head to Brazil with Pussycat Dolls and say a big thank you to @22liveuk for doing a cracking job supplying our UK and Europe legs - very well presented gear and great support, thanks guys.

This was also a first outing for me with @sennheiser Spectera IEMs, and I have to say I’m impressed. Crystal clarity, non-existent noise floor, no more shashing, and great to be able to lock pack volumes out when there’s heavy duty dancing going on to prevent accidental knocks.

Right, flight socks and an iPad full of White Lotus at the ready, Brazil here we come! by @rocknroll_yogi

PCD Forever 💖 What a thoroughly lovely bunch of people, and an absolute treasure to tour with my love @chris_pyno again 💃🕺 by @rocknroll_yogi

I hope that today, as well as planning and arranging and seeing how much there is to do, you look back and see how far you’ve come. by @rocknroll_yogi

Redefined, reclaimed, reunited. It’s been a real pleasure mixing monitors for the Pussycat Dolls the last couple of months. Gracious, courageous, powerful, hardworking, inspiring and talented women - it’s been a joy getting to know them a little on this lovely tour.

Thank you ladies, and thank you for the invitation @liammckenna2 🙏💖 by @rocknroll_yogi