In 1997, the band was simply Austin Reynolds. After the first single Sweat Pea was successful, there were pressures to play live. To do this, he enlisted the help of friends from his hometown of Brentwood, Essex: Dave Jay (who had worked with him in the early 1990s) and James Sumner.

Maverick heard an early demo of Music Like Dirt and signed the band for distribution in USA (Soul Hooligan was originally distributed through Freskanova Records in the UK). Various tracks from Music Like Dirt have been used in TV and movies, with a few new songs appearing, but no word on the forthcoming new album yet.