John Carter

John Nicholas Shakespeare (born 20 October 1942), known as John Carter, is an English singer, songwriter, and record producer.

Overview Mainly popular in the 1960s and early 1970s, Carter's craftsmanship can be heard at work with: Carter-Lewis and the Southerners. The Ivy League – "Funny How Love Can Be", "That's Why I'm Crying", "Tossing and Turning" Sacha Distel – "Vite, Cherie, Vite" (French version of "Beach Baby") Mary Hopkin – "Knock, Knock Who's There?" Kincade – "Dreams Are Ten A Penny"

Biography Carter met his future songwriting partner Ken Hawker at school in Birmingham. They formed a skiffle band in the 1950s called LVI. It was then they began writing songs together: "We began to write real Buddy Holly take-offs. Which was good, it got us excited about songwriting." In 1960, the duo went to London and presented themselves under their songwriting pseudonyms John Carter and Ken Lewis. Terry Kennedy became their manager and convinced them to start their own band as an outlet for their songs. In 1961, the first single by Carter-Lewis and the Southerners, "Back on the Scene", was released. But the band never broke through and their main claim to fame remains a brief stint that Jimmy Page did as their lead guitarist. In the UK it was a smaller hit for Goldie and the Gingerbreads.

They then provided backing vocals for "I Can't Explain", by the Who. In 1965 and 1966, The Ivy League scored four UK chart hits, including "Tossing and Turning", which reached number 3 in the UK Singles Chart and "Funny How Love Can Be" being their other top 10 hit. By early 1966, Carter decided he had had enough of touring and was replaced by Tony Burrows from The Kestrels. That year, he married Gill Shakespeare who would later write lyrics for some of his songs. Carter concentrated on songwriting, providing hits for Peter and Gordon and Brenda Lee. He found a new songwriting partner in Geoff Stephens, resulting in "My World Fell Down", recorded by The Ivy League, later to be covered by Gary Usher's Sagittarius and Dutch band The Buffoons.

Carter sang lead on the New Vaudeville Band's hit single "Winchester Cathedral", a traditional pop pastiche that became a U.S. chart-topper. He also released a single "White Collar Worker", recorded with Mickey Keen and Robin Shaw, as The Ministry of Sound. Early in 1967, Ken Lewis quit the Ivy League and started writing and recording again with Carter. One of the first results was "Let's Go to San Francisco", released as the Flower Pot Men. This includes Stamford Bridge's albums Come Up And See Us Sometime and The First Day of Your Life (1997).

Carter worked with Micky Keen and Robin Shaw and as a result of this collaboration they released two albums, Men From The Ministry and Midsummer Nights Dreaming (2005).

In late 2005, Carter released the compilation album; John Carter – A Rose by any Other Name (2005).

In the mid-eighties, John served on the Council of the British Academy of Composers and songwriters and the council as a writer-member of the Performing Right Society.

He currently runs, with his wife Gill, his own publishing company and record production company, which concentrates on compiling and promoting his own back-catalogue of songs and records.

In 2012, Carter teamed up with the Brazilian songwriter Salomao Hamzem, who is also a musician and a producer. As writers, they wanted to try something a bit different so hit on the idea of writing songs together in English and Portuguese. When Carter and Hamzem were thinking about names for the band, they came up with the idea of combining the first part Salomao's surname of Hamzem and the last part of Carter making 'Hamzter'. That's why the hamster has become their mascot. Their first album A Friend in Need (2016) was a result of this collaboration, followed by Coming Home (2017) and their third album, Time Will Tell (2018). In 2019, they are planning to release their next album.

With Ivy League members Perry Ford passing in 1999, and Ken Lewis in 2015, Carter is the last surviving member of the original 1960s trio.