Silk Brass has announced that from 2009 they will no longer receive support from their main sponsor, AstraZeneca.

Decade of support

The band has enjoyed support from the multinational pharmaceutical company since its early days in 1997, but in the present economic climate AstraZeneca has rethought its global community support policy, and as a consequence has decided to concentrate on supporting medical and scientific projects only — this means that funding for all arts groups has unfortunately been stopped.

Grateful

Barry Worth, Silk’s Chairman told 4BR: "We’re extremely grateful for all the support AstraZeneca has given us and we’re very proud to have been associated with such a prestigious company."

Barry added: "Their support has helped us to become the band we are today and has allowed us to do so much work to help other local and national charities and voluntary groups. We were aware that lots of other local groups had had their AstraZeneca support withdrawn so it wasn’t really a surprise when we got the news."

We were aware that lots of other local groups had had their AstraZeneca support withdrawn so it wasn’t really a surprise when we got the newsChairman Barry Worth

Far from down

The Silk players are far from despondent though, as Barry went on to explain: "The Davenport Arms at Marton is continuing as our music sponsor for a second year, which is fantastic, plus, we’re still really busy and because of our great local following our concerts are always full. At the end of the day we all love what we’re doing and losing this support won’t change that."

Silk Brass are now on the look out for a new main sponsor, whose name will feature alongside the Band’s at regular local, national and potentially international concerts and contests.