Their first gig was at Tunbridge Wells, on the day of the annual carnival, at which they got arrested. This led to their first press coverage with the local newspaper describing their gig as a 'cacophony of noise'. In 1981, Gooky (who left the same year), Hopper and Clive "Winston" Blake came in on lead guitar, drums and bass respectively, although Hopper was quickly replaced with PJ ('Persian John') (real name Djahanshah Aghssa). They managed to get a slot in The Exploited's Apocalypse tour, along with Chron Gen and Anti Pasti. This led to them signing to John Curd's record label WXYZ, with Curd and Chris Gabrin co-managing the band.

Later that year, they also opened for The Damned on a short tour round the north of England and Scotland. November 1981 saw the release of their first single, a cover version of Ralph McTell's "Streets of London", with the song that was to become the group's anthem, "So What" on the B-side.

In 1982, they took part in the 'So What Tour' in the company of such groups as Chelsea, Chron Gen and the Defects, and the release of their debut album We Are...The League. However, the Obscene Publications Squad seized all copies of their records, which were removed from retailers and they were banned from TV and radio. In addition, they were removed from the Top Of The Pops recording studio because Animal was carrying a 3ft axe around with him. The year finished with the 'Hardcore Storms America' tour with the UK Subs.

Gilly (real name Mark Gilham) joined the band in 1983 as an extra guitarist, which according to the bands website, was because Magoo was drinking heavily and was often unable to carry out his commitments as guitarist. The band went to Yugoslavia to record a live album, called Live In Yugoslavia, but this was dogged by problems with the authorities insisting that references that Animal had made about their recently deceased president Tito be removed from the master tapes, and any language which they deemed to be offensive be bleeped.

By 1984 PJ quit, unable to cope with the pressures of the drugs and alcohol lifestyle the band were now leading, and they became musically inactive. 1985 saw Michael Bettell join on drums, followed in 1986 by JB (Jonathan Birch). During this time they signed for GWR Records, and recorded the The Perfect Crime album. However, once again there were problems. GWR refused to put up the money to finish the album once they heard its rough cut, and it was released unfinished to try to get back some of the money already invested.

This was the final straw, and in 1987 ANWL disbanded. There was a farewell show in 1989, which can be heard on their live album Live Animals.

Michael Bettell died aged 41, from a brain tumour.

In 1992, and Animal was told by JB, that Metallica wanted him to guest at Wembley Arena, when they did their cover version of "So What". Animal put it thus on ANWL's website. "As I waited on the edge of the stage waiting to go on it suddenly dawned on me I was just about to stand in front of 10,000 punters who didn’t know me from Adam and sing a song that I couldn’t fucking remember; all that kept running through my head was RUN you silly old fucker!". However, after the show, the bug had bitten again. Mark joined that year on lead guitar, and 1993 - 1995 was spent playing gigs in the small venues the band had started out in. In 1996, they signed up with Impact Records and recorded their next EP Pig Iron. Beef also joined the band after Mark's departure.

1997 saw another personnel change when Winston left the band to be replaced by Jon Jon, and the recording of the album Scum.

Danny joined on drums in 1998, and the album Out of Control was released a year later in 1999. In 2001 Magoo quit playing live shows.

Jon Jon, Beef and Danny all left, to be replaced by PJ (original drummer), Jez on guitar, and Shady on bass. This line-up released the band's fifth studio album, Kings and Queens in 2005, which was released on the Captain Oi label. There were however fierce behind the scenes arguments and rows over the omission of two songs from that album, namely The Day The World Turned Gay and The Adventures Of Peter Vile (slang for paedophile). Lawyers for Captain Oi refused to sanction the release of these two songs because of fear of litigation so Nick (Animal) eventually relented and let the album be released with the two offending songs omitted. In 2006, the band set up their own independent record label, Nowhere Records – with Pig Iron - The Album being the first release in August 2006. The album includes the two songs omitted from the Kings and Queens album as well as "Landlord", taken from the Out Of Control album.

In 2006, Anti-Nowhere League undertook a 29-date UK tour, and PJ left the band after the Glasgow gig in October 2006. His replacement is Dave Hazlewood, also from Tunbridge Wells, who has filled in before on tours or dates with the League. On November 8, 2006, the ANWL began a three week tour of Australia and New Zealand.