In 1973 the band signed to Cube Records and started work with Black Sabbath producer Rodger Bain.

At this time working with Roger Bain, Thompson was introduced to producer Gus Dudgeon who attended several of the Bullfrog recording sessions.

It was the third Thompson produced single that was to establish the label as a heavy metal/rock outfit and this was "Don't Touch Me There" by the Tygers of Pan Tang.

Present on that session was a young man named Conrad Lant who had recently joined the studio as tape-op (tape operative assistant).

Roger was now A&R manager for Phonogram Records and introduced Steve to legendary producer Gus Dudgeon (Elton John, Elkie Brooks, David Bowie) Gus travelled with Roger to Impulse studios in Wallsend (Neat) where Thompson laid on a showcase performance for them with the house band of session musicians he had assembled (Steve himself playing guitar).

Bloggers and journalists have dubbed him "The GODFATHER of The North East NWOBHM" [11] Thompson eventually quit Neat Records in 1981.

[12] "Hurry Home" was also later recorded by Sarah Brightman and released as the second CD in a special edition of her album The Fly.

Collins was to produce a number of recordings of Thompson's songs over the coming years including The Searchers, Elaine Paige and Colin Blunstone.

[18] Just prior to Thompson joining MCA Music it had been planned that the Tygers of Pan Tang would record his song "Paris By Air" for their 3rd studio album.

Although Thompson had not worked with the band since producing their first single this had come about because he had shared a house in Whitley Bay with Tygers vocalist Jon Deverill, guitarist John Sykes and (strangely?)

When Thompson returned home in the evenings from the studio, there were frequent play-back sessions (often initiated by Sykes) of whatever he had been recording that day.

However, as this song was written specifically for Toni Halliday it needed to be altered significantly to be suitable for a male vocal and Thompson set about this task accordingly.

In the summer of 1982, plans were well under way for the recording of the Tygers next album (to be called The Cage), when John Sykes suddenly quit the band.

In 1982, Sheena Easton released her Madness, Money & Music album which contained the Steve Thompson song "Please Don't Sympathise".

In 1983, Celine Dion recorded the same song (Please Don't Sympathise) and with a French adaptation by Eddie Marnay it was released as "Ne me plaignez pas" on her album Les chemins de ma maison.

Celine also recorded an extended version of "Ne me plaignez pas," which appeared on her album Du soleil au cœur released in France.

In 1984, Thompson once again joined forces with Gus Dudgeon who brought the legendary Dick James (the man who signed the Beatles) out of retirement to sign Steve to an exclusive songwriting agreement with DJM (Dick James Music) Oddly, the success of the Cage album had caused the Tygers of Pan Tang to split up and Thompson continued his songwriting partnership with Tygers vocalist Jon Deveril with the intention of seeking a solo recording deal.

A full album's worth of material was written and demo'd and talks were taking place with record companies when John Sykes returned from a Japanese tour with Whitesnake and told Deveril and Thompson about the huge interest there in the Tygers of Pan Tang.

Thompson wrote or co-wrote several tracks Verity's 1985 release "The Truth of The Matter" and also appears on the credits for keyboards and bass.

Gus Dudgeon produced a number of recordings of songs by the pair with Thompson on Bass and Keyboards, Verity on Guitars and vocals with a string of sessions musicians.

However, he did a couple of TV shows with the Tygers but for a while became a member of Verity's touring band doing dates in Europe and the UK (including one of the last gigs to take place in The Marquee in Wardour Street)[26] Towards the end of the 1980s Thompson set up a publishing and production company named De Lucca with Brian Johnson of AC/DC.

The Tygers of Pan Tan's sixth album Burning in the Shade was recorded at Lynx De Lucca at this time with Thompson on bass and keyboards as well as co-writing all the songs.

Co-writing and production continued with John Verity with recordings appearing on a range of releases including "Rock Solid" and "Hold Your Head Up" and "Routes" Thompson had also been working with a young singer Peter Adshead who went on to success under the name of Baby Ford.

The first copyrights handled by the new company included two songs recorded by Elkie Brooks for her album Pearls III (Close to the Edge).

Steve Thompson has also been involved with community arts and this has resulted in several academic conference presentations and publications during his work at Teesside University in the Institute of Digital Innovation.