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Wide Boy Awake SINGLES

Ex-Ant bassist Kevin Mooney formed and led London's Wide Boy Awake, an exciting interracial quartet which only released some singles, the first two of which were collected on this eponymous American 12-inch. Hard to classify, the Wide Boys offer clever wordplay and a preponderant funk beat on "Slang Teacher," while square-dancing into wonderful country-tinged pop for "Bona Venture." Elsewhere, they try scratch cajun and dance-rock. ~ Phillip Ewing, 80s retro Music There followed the inspirational junk funk outfit Wide Boy Awake, formed with school pal John Keogh, and managed by Mooney's then wife Jordan. In fact, Kevin's relationship with the Sex/Seditionaries saleswoman and punk rock muse contributed to his exit from the Ants. "It caused problems," says Kevin. "Adam and Jordan were very close, but weren't sleeping together. Then I came along to upset the dynamic. I spoke to Jordan the other day, she's a lovely woman -- I still do love her." Strangely, Mooney's marriage to Jordan ended after he killed her cat. "This is really sick," he reveals. "It's something I 'm ashamed of -- I murdered her cat, but didn't mean to do it. However, if there's a hell, I'll go to it for that." Wracked with pangs of Dostoevskian proportions, he remembers: "I kicked it. I woke up in the morning really sick. Very, very ill and it had done a shit on my pillow. That's how Jordan and I ended. She is a wonderful person. She loves animals more than humans." These days, of course, Jordan works as a veterinary nurse and breeds cats in Brighton. Wide Boy Awake dressed, first in Westwood togs, and then in cool camouflage, cut a dash with a, well, insomniac insouciance, pacing the streets with a careless gait, looking for love and trouble, keeping on the move and living intensely. They made three records that moved -- Billy Hyena, Chicken Outlaw and Bona Venture -- and a video with Derek Jarman before splitting. Interestingly, the cover of Chicken Outlaw features the band going about their glamorous business, aided by the fat lines of heroin conspicuously laid out on a mirror. Here were a bunch of guys unashamed of their pharmaceutical preferences.    ~   Interview with Kevin Mooney from : 3am magazine WIDE BOY AWAKE MENU