Rat Scabies
Encyclopedia
Christopher Millar better known by his stage name Rat Scabies, is a musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

 best known for his tenure as the drummer for The Damned.

Millar was born in Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames is the principal settlement of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London. It was the ancient market town where Saxon kings were crowned and is now a suburb situated south west of Charing Cross. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the...

, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

. He played drums with Tor and London SS
London SS
London SS were an early British punk rock group founded in March 1975 by guitarist Mick Jones and bassist Tony James.The band spent most of their short history auditioning potential members. Besides Jones and James, however, guitarist Brian James was the only other semi-permanent member...

 before founding The Damned with Brian James, Dave Vanian and Captain Sensible
Captain Sensible
Captain Sensible is a singer, songwriter, guitarist who grew up in Croydon, England, and co-founded the punk rock band The Damned in 1976. After leaving the band, he reinvented himself as an alternative pop singer with a rebellious, self-conscious image...

 in 1976. He continued to play with the band with some interruptions and alongside various personnel changes until a dispute over the release of the album Not of This Earth
Not of This Earth (The Damned album)
Not of This Earth is the eighth studio album by The Damned. It is often called I'm Alright Jack & The Beanstalk.The album has a convoluted history...

 led to his departure in 1995.

His solo work outside The Damned includes a cover version of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

's "This Wheel's On Fire", credited to "Rat & The Whale". In 2003 Millar formed a short-lived outfit called The Germans with Peter Coyne and Kris Dollimore, originally from The Godfathers
The Godfathers
The Godfathers are an alternative rock band from London, England.-Career:The Godfathers were formed by Peter and Chris Coyne from the ashes of The Sid Presley Experience in 1985. After independent single releases produced by Vic Maile, and collected on their debut album, Hit By Hit, they signed to...

. In recent times, he has played with Donovan
Donovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...

, Neville Staple (formerly of The Specials
The Specials
The Specials are an English 2 Tone ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry, England. Their music combines a "danceable ska and rocksteady beat with punk's energy and attitude", and had a "more focused and informed political and social stance" than other ska groups...

), Dave Catching (Eagles Of Death Metal
Eagles of Death Metal
Eagles of Death Metal is an American rock band from Palm Desert, California, formed in 1998 by Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme. Despite their band name, Eagles of Death Metal are not a death metal band. Hughes stated that a friend was introducing Josh Homme to the death metal genre...

) and Chris Goss
Chris Goss
Christopher Ryan Goss, born August 17, 1958, is an American record producer and musician.-Selected discography:Throughout his career Goss has worked with a wide range of musicians in various genres.* 1988 - Masters of Reality by Masters of Reality...

. He has also worked as a producer, most notably with Flipron
Flipron
Flipron are a psychedelic pop band from Glastonbury, England, consisting of singer and songwriter Jesse Budd, pianist/organist Joe Atkinson, and drummer Mike Chitty...

, Ebony Bones!
Ebony Thomas
Ebony Bones is a British singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. Writing and producing her debut album Bone Of My Bones, she was named one of the "40 Men And Women Who Make London" by Time Out for their 40th Anniversary edition as well as producing the soundtrack for Yves Saint Laurent's...

  and Arizona punk outfit Glass Heroes. Millar currently lives with his wife Viv and their three children in Brentford
Brentford
Brentford is a suburban town in west London, England, and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located at the confluence of the River Thames and the River Brent, west-southwest of Charing Cross. Its former ceremonial county was Middlesex.-Toponymy:...

, and is the central character of the book Rat Scabies And The Holy Grail
Rat Scabies And The Holy Grail
Rat Scabies And The Holy Grail is a book written by Christopher Dawes and published in 2005 by Sceptre Books in the UK and by Thunder’s Mouth Press in the US...

, written by former music journalist Christopher Dawes. The book was published in May 2005 and is billed as "A road trip, a rich historical yarn, and testimony to the odd nature of a great many friendships".

In early 2011 Scabies played drums for The Members on their European tour. Most recently, Scabies contributed his drumming talents to a special project punk band based in Chicago called THE DAMN BATS. A single titled "Doomed" was released on 10.31.2011 and is available as an mp3 digital download thru the reverbnation.com site of Bats frontman Major Mistake.
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