Peter was involved with a number of line-ups between 1979 and 1984 including, Peter Black and The Reds (1980), The Blakeley Trio with Steve Stewart (Slime Men, Surry Hillbillies) and Denis Meagher, PM with Chris Bailey and Malcolm Green, Rat Tat Tat (1984) with Geoff Stapleton, Paul Abrahams, Jeff Raglus, Viola Dana and The Starlight Wranglers (1984) and Paris Green (1984).

Around this time, Peter also began performing and recording with Wendy Matthews, an affiliation which would continue through to the 1990 release of the Absent Friends single "I Don't Want to Be with Nobody but You" which featured Blakeley on backing vocals.

With this line-up, Blakeley supported a number of international touring acts including Eric Clapton, the majority of the material presented in his live set at this stage was later recorded and released on the 1987 mini-album Vicious.

Illusion was commissioned by the Adelaide Festival of Arts and featured words from noted Australian author Peter Carey arranged to music by composer Martin Armiger.

Vicious was produced by the renowned Ricky Fataar (well known for his work with The Beach Boys, Bonnie Raitt and The Monitors) and released through the Truetone Records label.

Artists involved with the album included Linda Ronstadt, Siedah Garrett, Wendy Matthews and Andrew Gold, in addition to legendary session musicians such as Jeff Porcaro, Jim Keltner and Larry Klein.

This release was also produced by Peter Asher and featured musical contributions from a number of people involved in the recording of the Harry's Café De Wheels album including, Andrew Gold, Frank Wolf, and Waddy Wachtel.

Members of Blakeley's touring band during this time included Teenie Hodges, Hopeton Hibbert, Junior Baillie, Roger Mason, Ron Francois and Deni Hines.

The album represented a different musical direction for Blakeley and incorporated stronger elements of Funk and Blues than Harry's Café De Wheels while still retaining a distinctive Soul sound.