A TAMESIDE sound bath practitioner has swapped her usual wellness surroundings for one of Manchester’s most iconic stages.
Rachel Mellish, founder of Rach’s Wellness Loft, was invited to perform a 30-minute set at the O2 Apollo after being invited to perform as the support act for Argentine duo Ca7riel and Paco Amoroso. – an opportunity which came as a complete surprise.
The invitation arrived unexpectedly by email, initially leaving her wondering whether it was actually real.
“I remember reading the email and thinking, ‘Is this real? Is it really going ahead?’” Rachel said.
“Then suddenly everything was being arranged and I realised – yes, this is actually happening!”
Rachel, who is based in Gee Cross, normally works with sound in a very different environment, creating immersive sound bath experiences focused on relaxation, wellbeing and giving people the chance to slow down and switch off.
The opportunity to perform at the Apollo was therefore a huge departure from her usual surroundings.
“I was so excited, but I was also incredibly nervous on the day,” Rachel said.
“When I arrived, I met Ca7riel outside the venue. We discovered that we both have a love of leopard print, which was such a funny little moment in what was already a completely surreal day.”
Inside the Apollo, Rachel said she was struck by how welcoming the team were.
She was shown to her own dressing room, complete with snacks, drinks and a make-up station, before heading out for soundcheck.
But it was when she stepped on to the stage that the scale of the opportunity really began to sink in.
She added: “I’d been to the Apollo as part of an audience before but seeing it from the stage was completely different.
“I was looking out at the room and thinking about how many incredible and renowned performers had stood there. And now I was standing on that stage too.”
Soundcheck brought its own challenges, with Rachel conscious of the difficulty of getting the sound right in such a large venue.
“There was definitely some stress around getting the sound right,” she continued. “I was thinking about how it would translate in such a huge space and whether everything would work as I hoped.
“But we got there, and then it was time to get ready.”
Rachel had 30 minutes on stage before Ca7riel and Paco Amoroso performed.
Despite feeling nervous beforehand, she was surprised by how calm she felt once she began performing.
“There were so many faces in the crowd, and I just wanted to take the moment in,” Rachel told The Correspondent.
“I’d been so nervous, but when I actually got on stage, I felt surprisingly calm. I felt excited and incredibly grateful to be there.”
The reaction from the audience at the end of her set was another highlight. The applause completely blew me away. I was so overwhelmed but really grateful. I felt proud of myself for pushing myself so far outside my comfort zone.”
The experience has also given Rachel a new perspective on her work with sound.
At Rach’s Wellness Loft, her sound baths are designed to create a calm and immersive environment where people can slow down, switch off and turn their attention inward.
The Apollo, by contrast, offered a huge venue, a large audience and the energy of a major live show.
Yet Rachel believes there was still a clear connection between the two, commenting: “Sound can completely change the feeling of a space. It can affect how we feel, where our attention goes and how we experience a moment.
“The Apollo was obviously a completely different environment to a sound bath, but there was still that same sense of sound creating an experience and connecting people.”
For Rachel, the biggest lesson from the experience has been the importance of being prepared to say yes to something unexpected.
She said: “I definitely had moments of thinking, ‘This is way outside my comfort zone.’ But I’m so glad I said yes. Sometimes you don’t know where an opportunity is going to take you until you take that first step.”