Leslie George Carter (born 12 December 1958), also known as Fruitbat, is an English musician who was a member of Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine.

Career

Carter played in a number of bands during the late 1970s, before meeting Jim Bob (James Robert Morrison) at The Orchestra Pit in Streatham, where their bands The Ballpoints and Dead Clergy used to rehearse. When The Ballpoints' bassist quit at the end of 1980, Les joined the band, who went on to change their name to Peter Pan's Playground. When Peter Pan's Playground split, Carter and Morrison continued to write together and formed the band Jamie Wednesday.

Jamie Wednesday broke up in 1987 after limited success. Jim Bob and Fruitbat stuck together and formed Carter USM, a band in which the two both played guitars and sang while a sequencer and drum machine played backing music. Carter USM had 14 Top 40 singles, one number one album and played over 800 gigs all over the world. The incident made the front pages of many national UK tabloids, and generated infamy for the band. and left Nottinghamshire folk/punk band Ferocious Dog in 2019, for which he played guitar. He plays bass in Keith Top Of The Pops & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band. He also performs as Leslie George Carter, singing and playing acoustic guitar. In 2018 he formed Smokin' Donuts a short-term project with long-time friend Doozer. This ceased in early 2020 pre lockdown.

Leslie George Carter currently plays in Abdoujaparov, in a duo with Richy Abdou and can occasionally be found performing cameos with Nick Parker and the False Alarms.

Carter presented a weekly music show on Brentwood radio station, Phoenix FM between 2001 and 2011, and again in 2021.

References

  • Carter USM family
  • Abdoujaparov homepage