El Gringo formed under the Zodiac symbol of Scales in MMII, when a chance meeting between songwriter El Maughan and drummer El Moon resulted in the recordings of title track "The Hands of the Inevitable" and the music for "The 12:50 from Cheltenham". Subsequent meetings at Banana Studios, Guisborough, resulted in the recording of "Do Your Clothes Ever Feel Too Tight?" - the group's love anthem. Then, in early October, a chance encounter between El Gringo and ill-fated rookie songsmith El Humphries produced three songs in 6 hours, including stadium rock anthem "Night Train To Dover". Things went swimmingly between the trio, with over fourteen songs being written, recorded and polished in the executive studio at Banana Records, until in late May 2003 things began to go sour.

Founding members El Maughan and El Moon especially, were becoming somewhat concerned with El Humphries' creative input into El Gringo, complaining that his songs were dampening the kamikaze, fun spirit of the band. El Humphries was described by El Moon as "just the "radiohead" to our "james" ". Yet, the two founder members tried to persist with relations, but things got progressively worse as El Humphries decided to record a SOLO effort, "My Kinda Music" - A tribute to the disgraced Michael Barrymore - and any chance of a proper, fun, working environment were destroyed. Then, in a fractuous recording session in early June, El Moon and El Humphries argued over the production of the childish epic "Loner", as El Humphries seemed to be putting little effort in.

Then, things got nasty as El Moon got angry and told El Humphries to "stop whinging ALL THE TIME and smile sometimes you sad ****", leading to the reply "you're just a big, jolly, cock - i'll sit here and smile in my ignorance like you". Two days later El Humphries was shot dead by El Moon, on his way out of Londis in Guisborough. Not really. Two days later, El Humphries quit, reasoning that he "didnt want to be a part of a farce" - a highly hypocritical statement as his bedroom that he spends all his time in is in fact the biggest farce known to man.

Post-Humphries, who has been stripped of his "El" title, El Moon and El Maughan slogged away writing new Humphries exit-inspired material for the debut album Handsoftheinevitable, which was released in June 2003. A raucus release party was held one sullen Friday night, the night before El Maughan packed his bags and moved to Spain, strangely enough.

In April 2004, Banana Records finally released their first Best Of The Bunch compilation CD, just 5 months short of thier 5th anniversary. The CD was chock-a-block with hits, notably featuring Gringo's "Night Train To Dover" and "Lost At Sea (Where The Pirates Cuss)". The inclusion of "Pirates" suggested that Gringo had new material, and after an increasingly stale period, in which Gringo nearly folded, the sophomoric effort Snakes And Ladders was released on July 14th 2004. The following Saturday, a triumphant album release party was held, in which the album was played to critics whilst a limited selection of snacks were provided. Not surprisingly, El Maughan took the iced bun.