Scott's Spotlight #56: Citizen Cain
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Today I am shining the spotlight on UK prog band Citizen Cain (Sometimes also appearing as Xitizen Xane). The roots of Citizen Cain go all the way back to 1982. It was in London that two old friends Gordon Feenie (drums/flute/keys) and George Scott (who goes by the stage name “Cyrus” and played bass and provided vocals). Before long they had added guitarist Tim Taylor. A search for the right keyboardist proved fruitless, so they decided to remain a trio. They soon were backed by KG Publications and gained high-profile gigs, such as headlining London’s legendary Marquee club, and appearing on the famous BBC music TV show “The Old Grey Whistle Test”. One of their songs appeared on a multi-artist compilation called “Fire in Harmony”. When they were on the verge of being signed by EMI subsidiary Elusive Records in 1988, Cyrus broke his arm and was unable to play. He returned to his hometown in Scotland, and Citizen Cain was done!
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Two years later in 1990, Cyrus had contacted another old friend, guitarist Frank Kennedy, who had been writing songs with drummer/keyboardist Stewart Bell and bassist Dave Elam. The quartet decided to give it a go with Cyrus on vocals and flute. Initially calling themselves The Kleptomaniacs, they wrote songs in the vein of Genesis, Marillion and Gentle Giant. Eventually Stewart Bell moved to keyboards full time at Cyrus’ suggestion, and drummer Chris Colvin was hired. At that point, the quintet decided to adopt the name of Cyrus’ previous band: Citizen Cain had been resurrected.
By 1991 the new Citizen Cain had recorded a demo, which was well-received, and they recorded their first proper album “Serpents in Camouflage". However, for unspecified “personnel reasons” the band ended up recording the album with a drum machine in place of live drums, so the band weren’t as happy as they’d hoped with the debut album. After the Dutch record label SI Music signed the band, Colvin returned and is credited on the album (it seems, however, that he only actually performs on a demo version on re-issued bonus track versions of the album). The album, released in 1992, consists of 6 tracks very much in the vein of Gabriel-era Genesis and Fish-era Marillion. Cyrus’ voice is very close to Peter Gabriel’s in tone. The songs range in length from about six and a half minutes to nearly thirteen and a half on the title track. Four of the six are over 10 minutes in length. This is pure unapologetic symphonic prog, performed with love and care, released during the grunge era. I have enjoyed “Liquid Kings” and “The Gathering” which are both north of eleven minutes long. This incarnation of the band toured extensively, opening for Pendragon, The Enid and Final Conflict, and even headlining a few gigs along the way. Prog Archives gives the album 3.57 out of 5 stars.
However, this line-up would not last long as “political issues” erupted within the band, causing Cyrus and Stewart Bell to fire the other three members. They were replaced by guitarist Alistair MacGregor, drummer Nick Arkless, and eventually bassist Andy Gilmour. This line-up would make the second Citizen Cain album, “Somewhere but Yesterday” released in 1994. In case anyone had any doubts about the band’s prog credibility after the first album, this would certainly erase them. The shortest track is 9:19 (“Junk and Doughnuts”), and the longest, the title epic is a whopping 26:45 over six movements! I have also enjoyed the album opener “Jonny Had Another Face” (10:33) and album closer “Strange Barbarians (The Mother’s Shroud)”. When their songs pop up on shuffled playlists, they always make me think, “Is that a Genesis song I haven’t heard before?” lol. It is really great prog, though, even if it really resembles their influences. The album was also released through SI Music. This is their highest rated album on Prog Archives with a score of 4.04 out of 5 stars. However, this line-up would once again prove to be temporary. While rehearsing a live set, guitarist Alistair MacGregor left to go work in Australia. Several guitarists auditioned, but none made the cut. Cyrus and Bell decided instead to work on songs for the next album. Apparently, the idea had long been for Cyrus to return to playing bass when able, and he was finally able (that must’ve been one hell of an arm fracture if it took 6 years to fully heal). After the decision was made to let Andy Gilmour go, Nick Arkless didn’t like the decision, and quit the band as well. So, we are back down to Cyrus and Stewart Bell once again to rebuild Citizen Cain.
Auditions still proved to be futile, so Cyrus and Bell decided to complete the album on their own. In 1996, they got a call from Allistair MacGregor, that he was back in the UK and would be willing to assist with the album, but stated that it would only be temporary, as he would eventually be returning to Australia permanently. During this time period, an EP of recordings from the 3-piece original line-up with Cyrus/Feenie/Taylor recorded in the 80s was released via a label called Mellow Music, titled “Ghost Dance”. I have not heard it and therefore cannot comment on it. However, Prog-Archives reviewers have rated somewhere between the “Good but non-essential” range (3 stars) and “Collectors Only” range (2 stars) at 2.61. Additionally, SI Music went bankrupt around this time and the first two proper albums were re-issued by Cyclops music.
Meanwhile back to the path of completing the third album, Allistair left within one month in order to gain Australian citizenship. So, once again, Bell and Cyrus were a duet. Studio time was already booked, so the engineer was willing to be flexible while they got it together. The album would finally appear in late 1997, titled “Raising the Stones”. With the exception of the opening track, “Last Days of Cain”, (which I have enjoyed) which features Andy Heatie on guitar, the duet of Bell and Cyrus performed all of the instruments on the album. Cyrus is credited with Bass & Vocals, while Bell is listed as Keyboards and Percussion. I also really like “Dreaming Makes the World” (11:51) which has a middle-eastern flavor to it, with Gentle Giant being more of an influence than Genesis. “Silently Seeking Euridice” resumes the Genesis vibes, however, but more like “Trick of the Tail”/”Wind & Wuthering” era Genesis. Interestingly, I believe that on the Citizen Cain website (which is my primary source for this article: https://citizencain.co.uk/band-biography/ ), they are counting “Ghost Dance” as the third album, and “Raising the Stones” as the fourth. “Raising the Stones” gets a score of 3.17 out of 5 stars on PA, although I quite like the material on it.
The next Citizen Cain album would also take some time to come to fruition. The album (the fourth or fifth depending on how you count it; in my mind it’s the fourth) was released in 2002 and called “Playing Dead” because, as stated on the band’s website, that’s what the band appeared to be doing during that time. Apparently a number of guitarists came and left in that interim, and “not one drummer made it past the first round”. Finally the band settled on guitarist Phil Allen, whom they describe as a “prog-metal guitarist found hiding in a local music store”. When the album came out, they decided to self-release it on their own “Pig in a Poke” label, citing the fact that they only earned about one pound per CD sold by record labels. The addition of Phil Allen made the guitar parts much more pronounced and complex. As a guitarist, I truly appreciate it. “Wandering in Darkness” (10:24) especially showcases his talent. While the Genesis vibe is still there, due to Cyrus’ voice, this album is much heavier sounding than anything Gabriel-era Genesis ever released. Other tracks I have enjoyed from “Playing Dead” include: “Children Of Fire - Prometheus And Epimetheus - Forethought - Afterthought” (13:29) and “Falling From Sephiroth - Etz Ha-Chayim” (15:31). While PA gives it 3.37 out of 5 stars, I believe that if I gave it a proper song-by-song treatment, I would rate it considerably higher.
The gaps between Citizen Cain albums keep getting longer and longer as it would be a full decade before the next album, their 5th by my reckoning, would appear. This is still the most recent release by the band (with an asterisk [*] explained below). The album, titled “Skies Darken”, dropped in 2012. In the intervening decade, the band was sometimes considered dead by Cyrus and Stewart, but they kept coming up with new musical ideas, although later Stewart Bell would say that it was a struggle, which partly explains the 10 year gap. The good news about the final Citizen Cain album is that the line-up remained constant, and Phill Allen gets to share his talents on the album. The opening track ”The Charnal House”(4:56) begins with a darker tone, but very complex playing from the band. That song segues directly into “The Long Sleep” (12:25). Other notable tracks on the album include The Hunting Of Johnny Eue / Trapped By Candlelight (11:59), Coming Down / The Fountains Of Sand / Delivered Up For Tea / Death And Rebirth (14:53) and Lost In Lonely Ghosts (13:43).
While that seems to be the end of Citizen Cain as a band, an interesting album appeared in 2014. “The Antechamber of Being Pt. 1” is credited to “Citizen Cain’s Stewart Bell”. Also interestingly, Phil Allen appears on guitar. While I cannot find any indication as such, I get the feeling that Bell & Allen would have liked to call this a Citizen Cain album, but couldn’t for legal reasons. The album also includes guest appearances from prog legend Arjen Lucassen (see my review of his latest album on the blog), Simone Rossetti of The Watch and Bekah Mhairi Comrie of the band Grace & Legend on vocals, and bassist David Watters. In 2017, he released Part 2 of the album with the same line-up.
I found an article from approximately in 2017 where Bell confirms that Citizen Cain is no more (https://www.loudersound.com/news/citizen-cain-confirm-split) , in which he states:
(begin quote)
“Cyrus and myself are thoroughly enjoying working on our own projects so we can safely say – Citizen Cain is over.
“We’ve had two, three years to find our feet with our solo projects and can now say that we won't be going back.
“We’ve both found a new lease of life in our musical endeavours through doing our solo stuff. As I said, Citizen Cain was in danger of becoming repetitive and it was becoming a struggle to progress and move forward with the same old formula. I appreciate that many fans would have liked us to continue releasing albums in the same vein as before but that was never our style.”
(end quote)
The article also references an official statement, also written by Bell”
(begin quote)
“After the release of our last album Skies Darken in 2012 the possibility that this would be our final work together was hinted at in interviews. At that time Cyrus felt he had said everything he had wanted to say with Citizen Cain and we both had plans for solo projects but it was during the following months that we reached a final decision.
“The 10-year gap between our last two albums was indicative of the struggle involved in continuing to write the same type of material for all those years and we both felt that to go on as a band we would be in danger of repeating ourselves.”
(end quote)
So, there we go!
The article also references a solo album from Cyrus to have been released in 2017 titled “Black Moth the Honeybee”, but I can find no trace of it, or any other releases by Cyrus at all. Stewart Bell has also not released anything beyond “The Antechamber of Being” albums that I can find. I have liked several of the tracks from those albums on my iTunes/Apple Music library.
So that seems to close the book on Citizen Cain’s long and difficult history. But one thing I am finding the more that I delve into prog bands is to never say never. So who knows, maybe Citizen Cain will appear again when we least expect it. I truly have enjoyed the music that they have given us, whether or not they make a comeback.
Of course, as always, be sure to check out the “Links for Listening” below!
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Prog On!
Scott
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LINKS FOR LISTENING:
From “Serpents in Camoflauge”:
“Serpents in Camoflauge”
“The Gathering”
From “Somewhere but Yesterday”:
“Junk and Doughnuts”
“Somewhere but Yesterday”
From “Raising the Stones”
“Dreaming Makes the World”
“Silently Seeking Euridice”
From “Playing Dead”:
“Wandering in Darkness”
“Children Of Fire - Prometheus And Epimetheus - Forethought - Afterthought”
From “Skies Darken”
“The Charnal House”
“The Long Sleep”
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