Fruitbat
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- This article is about the musician. Fruitbat is also sometimes used in reference to Megabats, which feed on fruit and nectar.
Fruitbat is the stage name of London born musician Leslie Carter. Les Carter played in a number of bands during the 1980s, before meeting old friend Jim Bob and his band Jamie Wednesday in a rehearsal space in 1985. Jamie Wednesday needed a bass player and Les agreed to join playing bass guitar and backing vocals.
Jamie Wednesday broke up in 1987 after some limited success. The pairing of Jim Bob and Fruitbat stuck together and Carter USM was born. In Carter Fruitbat became a renowned punk guitar hero, helping to co-write enough mosh pit friendly songs to secure a loyal following. Carter USM had 14 top 40 singles, one number one album and played over 800 gigs all over the world. A lifelong enthusiast of cycling, the cycling hat Les wore onstage in the early years became a strong visual trademark for the band. He could often take his bike with him on Carter tours, much to the annoyance of Jim Bob as detailed in the book 'Goodnight Jim Bob'.
One of Carter's most talked-about moments was when Fruitbat rugby tackled presenter Philip Schofield on live TV in front of millions of viewers at the Smash Hits music awards. Schofield made some patronising remarks about the band's performance and Les has said that he was "severely hammered" after drinking a crate of beer supplied by The Farm. The incident made the front pages of most of the UK tabloid press and represented some short-lived infamy for the band, which could only make them more popular with their fans. He is still occasionally invited to speak about the incident on various TV programmes and claims to earn up to £100 a time. [citation needed]
Carter split up in 1997. Les Carter has since formed a new band Abdoujaparov who have had some limited success [citation needed]. He is still a well-known and respected figure in the London music scene and remains a strong supporter of his former bands by personally running the Carter USM website, fan club and selling the band's merchandise. He also presents a regular show on Brentwood radio station Phoenix FM.
He currently lives in Brixton with his girlfriend. He remains good friends with his former band mate Jim Bob and contributed to Jim's two most recent albums, 2004's 'Angelstrike' and concept album 'School' in 2006.
