Egan and Rafferty met as teenagers in Paisley, and became the core of Stealers Wheel. They were initially joined by Roger Brown (guitar),
Rab Noakes (guitar, vocals) and Iain Campbell (bass) in 1972. By the time the band was signed to
A&M Records later that year, however, Brown, Noakes and Campbell had been replaced by Paul Pilnick (lead guitar),
Tony Williams (bass) and
Rod Coombes (drums). This second line-up recorded
Stealers Wheel (October 1972), produced by American songwriters and producers
Leiber & Stoller, '' in 1973 By the time the first album was released, Rafferty had left the band;
Luther Grosvenor filled in for him on tour. With the album also selling well, Rafferty was persuaded to return. However, Grosvenor, Coombes, Pilnick and Harper all left the band. The band then officially became a duo with various backing musicians on guitar, bass and drums. A second album,
Ferguslie Park, was released in 1973, The album, named after
an area of Paisley, just barely reached the US
Billboard 200 and was a commercial failure. With increasing tensions between Egan and Rafferty, and with Leiber & Stoller also having business problems, Stealers Wheel went on a year and a half hiatus. Gerry Rafferty died on 4 January 2011 of liver failure. In early 2016, independent record label Intervention Records reissued both
Stealers Wheel and
Ferguslie Park on 180-gram vinyl. In 2017 Caroline reissued all three in a mini-boxed set with three BBC bonus tracks on the first album. All were remastered. Rab Noakes died on 11 November 2022, at the age of 75. Joe Egan died on 6 July 2024 at the age of 77. ==Band members==