4BR has been informed that following careful consideration, the TATA Brass Band have made the decision to withdraw from the forthcoming Welsh Area Championship in Swansea and from contesting in general for the foreseeable future.

Too much pressure

A spokesperson told 4BR: "Whilst the band has put a great amount of work into preparing ‘Hollywood’ for Swansea and could have attended the contest, it was felt that this might be putting too much pressure on the developing young players and the decision to withdraw has been taken in the long term interest of the band."

They added: "The band now has a growing number of youth members and we want not only to allow them to develop as players but also to let them discover the joy of banding without the pressure of competition."

Efforts

4BR was informed that TATA had made every effort to attend contests in the past few years, but they felt that the focus on attending contests sometimes overshadowed their other activities.

They now hope to take time to completely re-evaluate their aims and focus on its work within the local community by building their concert and charity programme.

We are determined to modernise and rebuild the band and to return to the contest arena as soon as is practicable, especially in time for our 60th anniversary in 2017TATA spokesperson

Proud tradition

The spokesperson concluded: "TATA has a proud tradition through its 57 year history of producing players who have gone on to play with the best bands in the country, and we see the re-establishing of our junior band with the provision of free tuition and instruments as the way to guarantee our future.

We are determined to modernise and rebuild the band and to return to the contest arena as soon as is practicable, especially in time for our 60th anniversary in 2017."