Possessing one of the most memorable stage names to come from the first wave of British punk, Rat Scabies was one of the founding members of the Damned, and richly earned his reputation as one of the best, strongest, and fastest drummers on the scene. Scabies could bash hard and fast with the best of them, and as the group's approach became more ambitious and eclectic, he was more than capable of keeping up. After he left the Damned, he worked with a wide variety of acts, running the gamut from recording with U.K. goth rockers Nosferatu to serving as touring drummer for psych-folk legend Donovan. Scabies made his debut as a solo artist with the 2018 album P.H.D. (Prison, Hospital, Debt), a set that saw him showing off his interest in psychedelia, ambient music, and jazz along with sturdy punk, and he also regularly works with the groups the Sinclairs, One Thousand Motels, and Professor and the Madman.

Rat Scabies was born Christopher Millar in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England on July 30, 1957. He began playing drums when he was just eight years old, and when he quit school at the age of 14, he started devoting more time to music. In 1975, he was playing in an art rock band called Rot, where his bandmates forced him to put towels over his drumheads so he wouldn't be so loud. Around the same time, he was briefly one of the drummers who passed through the lineup of London SS, a London-based band that never played a gig but featured more than a few of the key figures in the early U.K. punk community.

Through London SS, Millar met guitarist Brian James and aspiring singer Dave Vanian, and while working at Croydon Fairfield Hall, he got to know a multi-instrumentalist named Ray Burns. In time, the four decided to put together a band; Ray Burns became Captain Sensible, Christopher Millar became Rat Scabies, and in July 1976, they played their first show as the Damned. After a few gigs, they were approached by the owners of a new label, Stiff Records, who wanted to record them. With Nick Lowe at the controls, they cut their debut 45, "New Rose" b/w "Help," which was released in October 1976, beating out the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K." as the first single from a British punk act. Their debut album, Damned Damned Damned, followed in February 1977, and within 12 months, the band would add Lu Edmonds on second guitar, release a disappointing second album (Music For Pleasure), and break up.

Immediately after the Damned called it a day, Scabies played a few shows with his new band, Rat Scabies' Runners, followed quickly by stints in the groups Drunk Disorderly and White Cats. In late 1978, Scabies, Sensible, and Vanian decided to re-form the Damned; James wasn't interested, so Algy Ward, formerly of the Saints, stepped in to play bass, Captain Sensible moved to guitar, and Vanian and Scabies stayed respectively on vocals and drums for the second edition of the band. Their comeback album, Machine Gun Etiquette, came at the end of 1979, and despite frequent lineup changes, the Damned showed impressive longevity. Scabies would remain part of the group until 1995, when a variety of creative and business disputes erupted during the recording of Not of This Earth (also issued as I'm Alright Jack the Beanstalk), which led to Scabies dropping out.

After leaving the Damned, Scabies stayed busy with a variety of projects. He became drummer for the British goth band Nosferatu, appearing on 1997's Lord of the Flies and the 1999 remix album Re-Vamped. In 1999, he played on the session for Gang Bang, a solo set from Herman Brood sideman and short-term Hanoi Rocks bassist René Berg. He was recruited to play drums on 2002's Zoon Sandwich, the second album from Slipper, a jazz-influenced dance music project led by Sam Dodson of Loop Guru; Scabies would also appear on Loop Guru's 2003 LP Bathtime with Loop Guru. One of Scabies' many interests included the legend and lore of Rennes-le-Château, a small village in Southern France that has been alleged to be where the Holy Grail is hidden. After sharing his thoughts on the subject with his neighbor, author Christopher Dawes, the two went to France to check out the rumors for themselves, and their adventures were chronicled in Dawes' 2005 book Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail. In 2004, Scabies backed former Specials vocalist Neville Staple on his solo project The Rude Boy Returns, and he was both producer and guest artist on 2008's Gravity Calling by Flipron.

It was in the mid-2010s that Scabies' musical output took a dramatic uptick. In 2014, he became a founding member of the Mutants, a group that included Chris Constantinou (who had worked with Adam Ant and the Wolfmen) and Paul Frazer (a veteran of Sunsource and Black Futures), with each album designed as a conceptual project focused on a different form of music with a wealth of fitting guest stars. 2014's Rhythm Punk Review was devoted to the first wave of U.K. punk, 2015's Tokyo Nights celebrated the Japanese rock scene, and 2016's Your Desert My Mind paid homage to the California Desert Rock community. In 2016, he was recruited to play drums with Professor and the Madman, a group featuring Alfie Agnew and Sean Elliott of the long-running West Coast punk band D.I. as well as one-time Damned bassist Paul Gray. Between 2016 and 2020, they would bring out four studio albums -- Elixir 1: Good Evening Sir!, Elixir 2: Election, Disintegrate Me, and Séance. After the Mutants folded, Constantinou and Scabies continued on with a new project, One Thousand Motels, debuting in 2020 with 2% Out of Sync and delivering the follow-up, Get In Where You Fit In, in 2021.

In 2018, after years of laying down musical ideas in his son's recording studio, Scabies emerged with a full-length solo album, a personal effort titled P.H.D. (Prison, Hospital, Debt) that was by turns raucous and thoughtful. And in 2020, Scabies debuted another group, a retro-rock combo called the Sinclairs, in which he played drums alongside guitarist Billy Shinbone (who had worked with him before with Flipron and Neville Staple); their debut album, Sparkle, arrived in June 2020. In 2020, the Damned announced that the original lineup of Dave Vanian, Brian James, Captain Sensible, and Rat Scabies would reunite for a short British tour; the dates were originally booked for 2021, but after the COVID-19 pandemic canceled touring plans, the gigs were rescheduled for February 2022. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi