Under the name Norman Brain he wrote some material on The Attractions' Costello-less album Mad About the Wrong Boy in collaboration with his then girlfriend, Fay Hart.

During this period Nieve focused on session work for other artists (The Neville Brothers, Hothouse Flowers,[7] Graham Parker, Squeeze,[8] Tim Finn, Kirsty MacColl, Madness,[7] Nick Heyward[9] and David Bowie).

[10] Also in 1986, Nieve formed the group the Perils of Plastic with ex-Deaf School vocalist Steve Allen, releasing three non-charting singles in the UK in 1986 and 1987.

At around the same time he led the house band (billed as Steve Nieve and The Playboys) on the UK TV series The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross.

Elvis Costello & the Imposters have toured extensively and released the albums When I Was Cruel (2002), North (2003), The Delivery Man (2004), The River in Reverse (2006, featuring Allen Toussaint), Momofuku (2008), National Ransom (2010), Look Now (2018) and The Boy Named If (2022).

Though both albums were released only in the UK by the independent label Demon Music Group, they were critically well received and noted for their "display [of] the artist's wit, compositional talent and abundant instrumental agility.

[13] The score was interpreted by Barbara Bonney, Sting, Robert Wyatt, Elvis Costello, Amanda Roocroft, Nathalie Manfrino and Sara Fulgoni for the voices.