Wide Awake: The Homosexuals

BRUNO WIZARD, MASTERMIND of the late '70s and early '80s British art-punk band The Homosexuals, loves to talk. Earlier this year he gave a 29-minute answer to a single question posed to him on BBC Radio 6, and during our 34-minute conversation the 58-year-old answered four questions.

"I'm a walking bundle of ideas," the vocalist said, before launching into another monologue about the record industry, not selling out, drug addiction, being an artist and the Law of Nature.

"In 1985, '86, I discovered the Law of Nature that says naught point naught, naught, naught, naught, naught, naught one percent is aware of the true nature of things. The rest are asleep," said the intensely DIY artist, who refused to work with any record labels while his colleagues in The Damned, The Jam and Generation X went on to become punk superstars.

His disgust with the record industry and some personal demons were the reasons Wizard closed "the studio in my mind" in 1986, but he never lost hope in finding those people who were "awake."

"Let me go and find these few conscious people," he said, "and start building networks, so when the world is ready and there's this alternative distribution network in place that is not controlled by the establishment, then I'll be ready. I figured it might take 20 years."

He was right.

After the 2004 reissue of 1984's "The Homosexuals' Record" (Morphius Archives) and the three-CD box set "Astral Glamour" (Messthetics), which compiled everything the group ever did (including two songs from Wizard's first band, The Rejects), the response to the cult band was overwhelmingly positive. So Wizard reformed The Homosexuals with new musicians. While this new version is much tighter, the group still screams with fiercely original takes on punk, dub and avant-garde rock.

The Homosexuals recently put out the "Love Guns?" (Serious Business) 10-inch, and Wizard has been able to embark on the first tour of his almost 40-year career.

"All the things that are happening now may appear like, 'Oh, wow, he's just started doing things again.' No," he said. "This is the birth of something that I conceived in 1986, very clearly, consciously."

And he's more than happy to tell you about it.

» Velvet Lounge, 915 U St. NW; with Martin Bisi and The Cheniers, Thu., Nov. 13, 9 p.m., $10; 202-462-3213. (U Street-Cardozo)

» Download an MP3 of "Slow Guns" from the "Love Guns?" EP, courtesy Serious Business.

Photo courtesy Serious Business & Bruno Wizard