“A Balmy Night At The Grey Horse” - Los Endos in concert at the Grey Horse Kingston Saturday 23rd February 2008. Review by Alan Hewitt. Photos by Anthony Hobkinson.

Oh it really has been a while! The Grey Horse… I have a lot of good memories of this venue, having been lucky enough to see both ReGenesis and Invisible Touch there in their heyday. Los Endos are still very much the new boys on the circuit and still finding their feet with only a handful of gigs under their belts so far. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the last performance that I saw and so I was looking forward to being similarly entertained tonight.

The crowd was a small one, well… that’s what happens when you schedule a gig on the same night that England are playing France in the rugby I suppose, but they made up for their lack of numbers in enthusiasm and gave the band a good reception as they took the stage and commenced the show with Watcher Of The Skies which got everything off to a fine start. Thankfully, the technical problems which had dogged their previous performance were absent tonight. However, different problems were soon to make themselves apparent as the show progressed. The set took its main emphasis from the Gabriel era and so we were served up healthy doses of The Lamb… Selling England and Foxtrot and in the main, the performance was both musically and vocally competent. However, I have some sympathy for Alan the keyboard player as he attempted what even Tony Banks had given up when he started the piano introduction to Firth Of Fifth and completely lost the plot - perhaps he should have emulated Tony and stood up at the end of the intro and shouted “Oh fuck!” however, bassist Martin quickly rescued him by counting in the band and the rest of the song proceeded without any further major hiccups.

The second half of the show opened with a wonderful jazzy version of The Battle Of Epping Forest which the band had really syncopated and it was all going really well until Dennis had a “senior moment” and forgot the words! However, the band carried on and eventually Dennis regained the use of his grey cells and finished the song in fine style. Another personal favourite for me was the band’s rendition of Blood On The Rooftops. Guitarist Gary Lucas tackled the acoustic solo manfully before the band joined in with an enjoyable if workmanlike performance of this classic. The highlight of the show was the finale really. Supper’s Ready was performed astutely and economically with very little risk taking before the encores and what else could a band with a name like Los Endos close the show with? Well I think that’s fairly obvious and the performance of both Dance On A Volcano and Los Endos itself was worth the entrance price alone. The entire band took the audience by the scruff of the neck and shook them till the pips dropped out. Kudos in particular to both John and Dennis whose percussive skills really gave an edge to the performance.

Over all, not a stellar performance, but when the band gelled, the magic that I saw at the previous gig I reviewed was still there and with patience and persistence and above all confidence in their own abilities, this band will go the distance and provide fans AND themselves with a great deal of pleasure for a long time yet!