That Petrol Emotion are renowned for a devastating live performance of tight musicianship and intense playing. They were described by Rolling Stone magazine as "The Clash crossed with Creedence", but their influences range from The Beatles to Television to Wire to Captain Beefheart to Can. The New York Times described them in 1987 as "a youthful Rolling Stones" and a "revved-up Television", and Robin Guthrie from the Cocteau Twins wanted to produce them. However, despite the great critical acclaim and fan base they garnered, That Petrol Emotion never achieved the commercial success that was expected and they disbanded in 1994.
John O'Neill went on to form the band Rare, while The Undertones reformed in the 2000s for an album, without Feargal Sharkey, on Sanctuary Records. McLaughlin and Gorman still sporadically perform new, original material acoustically. A document of That Petrol Emotion's farewell gigs in London and Dublin was released in 2000 as Final Flame: Fire, Detonation and Sublime Chaos.
On 26 March 2008, Mack announced that the band were reforming to play reunion concerts in the summer. In August 2008 they appeared in London's The Boston Arms and Dundalk's Spirit Store, then went on to play at the Electric Picnic festival in Stradbally, Ireland.
In March 2009 That Petrol Emotion played at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. In the same month their official site confirmed that That Petrol Emotion would be playing the Hop Farm festival in Kent, England in July 2009. Shortly afterwards a UK tour also in July 2009 was announced along with stints at Oxegen Festival in Ireland and T In The Park in Scotland.