Neil Carter

Neil Andrew Carter (born 11 May 1958) is an English musician who has worked in diverse genres throughout his career. Classically trained on the clarinet and piano, he became a professional rock musician at 17 and had his first "mainstream" experience with singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan. He subsequently played guitar and keyboard for the hard rock band UFO (from August 1980 until their first breakup in 1983), guitarist Gary Moore, and Wild Horses. He is credited with co-writing a number of Gary Moore's songs, including the worldwide hit "Empty Rooms".

At 30, he left the rock world and developed a different career as a teacher of woodwind (saxophone and clarinet). He became an ABRSM music examiner in 2003. 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. In 2014, he retired from Brighton College and moved permanently to his home in Lanzarote.

On 30 April 2019, it was announced that he would return to UFO for their 'Last Orders' tour, following the death of Paul Raymond, with Carter replacing Raymond. The tour began in June 2019 in Germany and continued into 2022 after being postponed from 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following this tour, UFO called it quits once again in April 2024.

In 2024, 'Moggs Motel', an album from the musical project of the same name, in which he participated and composed, and featuring UFO's Phil Mogg, was released.