Strawpeople were formed at 95bFM by Mark Tierney and Paul Casserly in 1990, primarily as a studio band with featured vocalists. Initially signed to Pagan Records, their first single ‘One Good Reason’, a cover of the old Swingers hit, was released the same year but failed to chart. It was followed shortly afterwards by an album Hemisphere.
Further singles ‘Blue’, ‘The Slide’ (a cover of the Tall Dwarfs song), and ‘Love Explodes’ fared little better, although the second album Worldservice charted (No.30) on the strength of student radio play and strong reviews.
A move from Pagan to Sony was followed by the breakthrough Broadcast album in 1994, and a string of radio hits including the 1995 APRA Silver Scroll winner ‘Sweet Disorder’.
A split between Tierney and Casserly meant that the 1997 album Vicarious was more or less a Paul Casserly solo album with guests, as were the two subsequent albums No New Messages in 2000, and Count Backwards From 10 in 2004.
The complete Strawpeople story on AudioCulture is in two parts, written by Greg Fleming.