The band went to the US in late 1964 to play the "Murray the K" Christmas show at the Fox Theater in Brooklyn and subsequently toured extensively in England and Europe.

[citation needed] Although subsequent records failed to equal the success of "Tobacco Road", the band worked steadily until Hawken moved on late in 1968.

Dreja, aware that his former Yardbirds colleagues Jim McCarty and Keith Relf were putting together a new band, suggested Hawken as a possible member.

Hawken turned up at McCarty's house in Thames Ditton, along with bass player Louis Cennamo, Dreja and Cole.

[3] Hawken also worked as a session musician, playing on Spooky Tooth bandmate Luther Grosvenor's solo album, as well as projects by Claire Hamill and The Sutherland Brothers.

[5] Hawken appeared briefly in the David Essex film That'll Be the Day (1973) as the keyboard player in the band led by Stormy Tempest (Billy Fury), which also featured Keith Moon on drums.

On 29 October 1979, John, his wife Alexandra and their sons Barnaby and Jody moved to the United States from the UK, and Hawken went into a temporary retirement from music.

In 2001, the surviving members of the original Renaissance – Jim McCarty, Jane Relf, Louis Cennamo and John Hawken – recorded and released the album Through the Fire under the band name 'Renaissance Illusion'.

In 2004 the Hero and Heroine Strawbs line-up reunited, and undertook a number of tours both in the US and Europe, recording two new albums: Deja Fou and The Broken Hearted Bride.

In October 2011, Hawken came out of retirement to perform with Jim McCarty and Jann Klose at Hugh's Room and This Ain't Hollywood, Ontario, for two Chamber Pop Summits.