Blueroom - The Pacing Bear

Blueroom were a band formed in Shropshire in the early 2000s. We made two albums - the Noise EP (2004) and Red Mission Void (2005).

The pacing bear is a track from Red Mission Void, the second release from Blueroom and first full length LP recorded in 2005.

The album tells the story of a trip we took to Scotland, driving up from Shropshire in the middle of the night, then finding somewhere to camp. The plan was to climb Ben Nevis. We found a spot near the West Highland way just outside Fort William made a bed out of trees to put our tent on.

We camped beside a river where we washed, drank, swam and cooked. We explored the vast bogs and moorland beside us. And on day three we climbed Ben Nevis, most of us with no supplies, food, equipment or water.

"The Pacing Bear is the story of my perspective of the journey up Ben Nevis. It was snowy at the top of Nevis and a complete whiteout, I ended up on my own. It was truly disconcerting, being completely alone and surrounded by nothing but freezing cold whitness. I kept going up the hill. As I continued, I eventually saw something black in the distance so I thought I should head towards it. As I continued the black thing grew and grew, it was very confusing. Eventually the black thing filled my entire field of vision until it was all I could see, and I had absolutely no idea what I was looking at. I then realised, I could make out little bits of snow in the blackness - I was looking at the other side of a cliff, having nearly just walked off it. I don't know how far I was from the edge, I could have been 2 metres, or 20, or 100. Either way, I didn't fall down and become a statistic. The top of the hill was then not far and I found the others there."

The band are very fond of this track, so it deserved a video.

Blueroom on Red Mission Void:

Alan Chaplin - Vocals
Patrick Gough - Bass, Guitar, Vocals, Tin Whistle
Alan Goulbourne - Guitar
Adam Gregory - Guitar, Vocals
Sam Wainwright - Drums