Neil Carter is an English musician who has worked in diverse genres throughout his career. Classically trained, he became a professional rock musician at the age of 17 and initially had his first "mainstream" experience with singer-songwriter
Gilbert O'Sullivan. He subsequently played
guitar and
keyboard for the hard rock bands
Wild Horses,
UFO, and guitarist
Gary Moore. He is credited for co-writing a number of Gary Moore's songs including the worldwide hit "Empty Rooms". At the age of 30 he left the rock world behind and developed a different career as both teacher of woodwind instruments (
saxophone and
clarinet) and as an
ABRSM (
Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) examiner. 2010 saw an unexpected return to rock with
Gary Moore, playing festivals across Europe and a tour of
Ukraine and Russia. Future tours and a Celtic rock album were to follow but this was curtailed by the death of Gary Moore in February 2011. On 30 April 2019, Neil would return to UFO for their 'Last Orders' tour, following the death of
Paul Raymond. The tour began in June 2019 in Germany and continued into 2022 after being postponed from 2020 due to the
COVID 19 pandemic. The future of UFO is to been determined but for now please enjoy our conversation with Neil Carter!