Often known for being an eccentric in interviews, he claimed to have been kicked out of the Maynooth Seminary after producing a thesis proving that the Devil did in fact have "all the best tunes"[1] and later retiring from full-time employment at the age of 22.

[3] His initial goal with Hoodlum Priest, one of the musical projects he explored during the 1990s, was to draw in both film influences on his work—primarily via dialogue but also musically—and hip-hop by recruiting a London-based MC.

He was introduced to rapper Paul Sevier, previously known as Junior Gee, (under this moniker he won the London Rapping Championships and appeared on a handful of singles throughout 1983 and 1985 [4]) at a club performance in 1989.

[5][2] Thompson continued on his own, working on various sideprojects and interspersing his background work (occasionally with regular friend/callobrator Cliff Hewitt, a short-lived band called Black Radio and providing music for Television commercial) and continued to release occasional album releases such as 1994's Beneath the Pavement (which featured 2 tracks produced by Raymond Watts of KMFDM fame) and 1998's Hoodlum Priest, which featured former Gaye Bykers on Acid frontman and Pigface/Apollo 440 bandmember Mary Byker on vocals.

Recently, Derek became a member of Brighton's experimental music collective Spirit of Gravity and was last seen gigging as Komuso, which he described as an improvised unit, which featured guests who were given no information what to play on arrival to the stage.