In support of Anne-Marie

I don't know how many people have read the two very critical and in my opinion rather unfair reviews of both Mostly Autumn and Panic Room in this month's Classic Rock Presents Prog, in particular the suggestion that Anne-Marie is wasted in Mostly Autumn if she's not sharing the spotlight with Livvy.

I know it's sometimes dangerous to try to read too much between the lines, but sometimes the inference looks pretty clear; the opinion of the magazine appears to be that Anne-Marie should leave Mostly Autumn to focus exclusively on Panic Room.

As many people probably know, I'm a huge fan of both bands. I recognise that Panic Room is "her" band, and that will always be the focus for her own songwriting. But I also feel that she's an important part of what makes the current lineup of Mostly Autumn such a great live band.

When Heather Findlay announced she was leaving the band nearly two years ago, my immediate feeling was that Mostly Autumn's short-term future depended on Bryan managing to keep the rest of the band together. If he succeeded, they would rebound (as they did). Had anyone else bailed at that point, especially Anne-Marie, they would have had a far harder time picking up the pieces, and would have run the risk of the whole thing falling apart.

It's not as if membership of multiple bands is especially unusual for bands at this level. How many different bands is John Mitchell in, for starters? There may come a time when either Panic Room or Mostly Autumn reaches the stage where it's no longer possible to share membership. But I don't believe we're anywhere near that point at the moment, and that bridge shouldn't be crossed until they come to it.

Firstly, as a fan of both bands it almost goes without saying that I appreciate the contribution made to both by Anne-Marie and would wish her to continue to work with both bands.
Secondly, I'm not sure what "Prog" magazine are up to with this. A cheap but insulting jibe on the band name. Followed by a more insulting and sexist comment about the fanbase. It is almost as if they are assuming that none of us are reading it - or quite prepared to accept that we wont be buying any more. But leaving an opening for Panic Room, if they can be split off completely from MA. Divide and Conquer tactics.
There have been a few comments in the mag recently about some of the newer bands not being progressive enough. Perhaps this is the start of some kind of witch-hunt to cleanse their readership and the bands that they include.
Or perhaps we are just getting a bit jumpy about a few people with negative views - we can't win them all.