United States
From December 1976, Thorpe continued his musical career in the US, by 1979 he released his solo space opera, Children of the Sun, which peaked into the top 40 of the Billboard Pop Album chart, and top 50 in Australia. The related single, "Children of the Sun" peaked into the top 50 of the Billboard Singles chart. He released three more studio albums while living in the US, with 21st Century Man (1980) peaking on the Bilboard Pop Album chart top 200. "In My Room" from 21st Century Man had top ten chart success in Canada. Other US-based releases were Stimulation (1981) and East Of Eden's Gate (1982).
In 1984, Thorpe stopped performing live music, he had started an electronics consulting company which did work for The Walt Disney Company, Mattel and Universal Studios. By 1986, he owned a recording and production studio in Los Angeles, where he worked on musical scoring for television series, including: War of the Worlds, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Columbo, Eight Is Enough and Hard Time on Planet Earth. Former Aztec bandmate, Tony Barber had written a series of children's books, collectively called The Puggle Tales from 1981. Barber and Thorpe had formed a soft toy company in 1987, Sunshine Friends, and also released children's songs on cassettes and video. In 1989 Barber and Thorpe co-wrote three more stories for The Puggle Tales series: Double trouble, Flying's easy and Marco and the book of wisdom.
From 1990, Thorpe collaborated with Mick Fleetwood (of Fleetwood Mac) and Bekka Bramlett in Fleetwood's side project, a band called The Zoo, which resulted in Shakin the Cage (no apostrophe) single featuring Billy Burnette and Kenny Gradney of Little Feat. This was followed by the "Shakin' the Cage" (apostrophe included) album featuring an altered band line-up and a re-recorded version of the title track in March 1991. Thorpe had written all ten of the tracks, including one (the title track track) co-written with Burnette, and another with Bramlett's father Delaney. The Zoo toured Australia during 1991 and while in the country Thorpe was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame on 25 March alongside Glenn Shorrock, Don Burrows and Peter Dawson. Fleetwood performed at the ARIA Awards ceremony held at the Darling Harbour Convention Centre in Sydney. Thorpe returned to touring with another set of Aztecs in 1993 and released a boxed set in 1994, Lock Up Your Mothers, which peaked at #15 on the ARIA Charts. The Lock Up Your Mothers tour included media appearances on Hey Hey Its Saturday, Denton and 60 Minutes.
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