They formed following the break-up of The Boy Hairdressers, a band featuring Raymond McGinley, Norman Blake and Francis Macdonald.

[4] Following a brief period in which Blake was a member of BMX Bandits, the three former bandmates joined with Gerard Love to form Teenage Fanclub.

[4] Originally a noisy and chaotic band, their first album A Catholic Education, released in 1990 on Paperhouse, is largely atypical of their later sound, with the possible exception of Everything Flows.

[4] Originally intended to be a very limited release,[5] the record received critical reviews of its self-confessed shambolic guitar thrashes and a cover of Madonna's "Like a Virgin".

[1] Their next album, Bandwagonesque, released on Creation Records in the UK and Geffen in the US, brought Teenage Fanclub a measure of commercial success.

Bandwagonesque was more deliberately constructed, the hooks became stronger, the guitar riffs were brought under control, and the harmony vocals took shape.

Brendan O'Hare left Teenage Fanclub during this period because of "musical differences", to be replaced by Paul Quinn (formerly of the Soup Dragons).

[1] The follow-up album, Howdy!, released on Columbia Records in the UK after the demise of Creation, continued the sound of Songs from Northern Britain.

Francis Macdonald rejoined as the drummer in place of Quinn, who left the band after recording his parts for Howdy!

The band began work on their ninth album in August 2008, booking an initial three weeks at Leeders Farm recording studio in Norfolk.

[9] The album was called Shadows, the first to involve keyboardist Dave McGowan as a full-time member, and was released on the band's own PeMa label.

[12] In August 2018, the band issued new versions of their five Creation Records era albums which had been remastered at Abbey Road Studios.

To celebrate the reissues, the band also announced Songs from Teenage Fanclub: The Creation Records Years, a four-city UK tour during late October to mid-November in which they would play three nights each in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and London, with each night's setlist covering different periods of the Creation-era discography,[13] and featuring former drummers Brendan O'Hare and Paul Quinn participating, in which both drummers would respectively perform the albums and B-sides they had originally recorded.

[14][15] These gigs would be Gerard Love's last with the group,[15] as he separated from the band due to differences in opinion on their future touring plans, later revealed to be a reluctance to fly frequently around the world for live performances.

Raymond McGinley joined Dave McGowan's folk group Snowgoose, whose debut album Harmony Springs was released in 2012.