The Ex

Information

Pop Mutations presents:
The Ex

• Special Guests
  Friday 22nd May
  The Flying Duck
  18+

Few bands are as focused on potential challenges, on what is yet to come, as The Ex. Which is pretty remarkable for a band that celebrated 45 years of existence last year, a turbulent journey filled with an impressive series of highlights. However, nostalgia has never been this band's forte, as they like no other succeed in reinventing themselves, finding new alliances and fascinating challenges along the way. Stay out of that comfort zone for long enough and it just might disappear.

Take a look at the band's story - an unpredictably winding road you can partly keep track of with the chronological series of reissues that they have been making available - and you'll conclude that there never was any stagnation. What started with raucous punk, rooted in the squatting and punk movements of the late 70s, turned into an impossible-to-label range that made its mark nationally as well as internationally.

The Ex played more than 2000 concerts in 45 countries, often as a pioneer. In the 80s, they were one of the very first Western bands to explore Central and Eastern- Europe, from Hungary to the former Czechoslovakia, Poland and Russia. Only after that, Canada and the United States followed. A crucial link turned up at the start of the new millennium, when the band traveled to Ethiopia for the first time, backed by a VPRO TV crew. It was the start of a unique chapter in the band's history: several tours (on several continents), an intense collaboration with Ethiopian artists (from Getatchew Mekuria, with whom they played more than 100 concerts, to dancer and cultural ambassador Melaku Belay, and many others) and lots of releases ensured The Ex also became a pioneer in the 'crossover' world, where music from different regions collides.

The pandemic was a standstill for many, including The Ex. Or perhaps it was more a kind of recharging, as the band is back on national and international stages with new music, ready to return to the studio. Once again, their versatility is evident. Whether you're talking about a legendary rock venue in Amsterdam (The Ex played more than three dozen concerts at Paradiso, with a.o. an Ex Festival during its 50th birthday celebrations) or a festival in Austria where the best of the international free music scene gathers (in november the band plays the legendary Wels Unlimited): the band is so unique that it's all possible.

Just like in the previous decades, new opportunities keep turning up. Only recently, Andy Moor and Terrie Ex contributed to a contemporary live soundtrack to Limite (a classic of Brazilian cinema), during the Holland Festival. Once again an illustration of the fact that the band is so much more than four musicians in a straitjacket. The Ex is still an eager sponge for diverse inspirations, as well as a generator for ideas, a way of life, an ode to vitality and an extended hand.

And they celebrated this with a festival for their 45th birthday. Not a predictable rearview mirror event, no tribute to what once was, but an opportunity to show what living, organic interaction can lead to in the moment. And right now, early 2025, there's a full new album called If Your Mirror Breaks, and a big tour all around Europe, yes, indeed again: "Forward In All Directions".

— Text by Guy Peters.