Portrait of Rat Scabies

Birthday profile

Rat Scabies

Rat Scabies, English drummer and producer

Born
July 30, 1955
Age in 2026
71
Zodiac sign
Leo
Birth year
1955

About Rat Scabies

Christopher John Millar (born 30 July 1955), known by his stage name Rat Scabies, is a musician and the drummer for English punk rock band the Damned. == Career == Millar was born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. He played drums with progressive rock outfit Tor and London SS before founding the Damned with Brian James, Dave Vanian and Captain Sensible in 1976. In his audition for London SS, he obtained the nickname Rat Scabies after he was suffering from scabies when a rat ran across the basement floor. The Damned played their first gig supporting the Sex Pistols, and later released the first punk single in the UK, "New Rose". Scabies played with the Damned with some interruptions and alongside various personnel changes until a dispute over the release of the album Not of This Earth led to his departure in 1995. His solo work outside the Damned includes a cover version of Bob Dylan'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. He has also played with Donovan, Nosferatu, ska artist Neville Staple (formerly of the Specials) and his band, Dave Catching (Eagles of Death Metal), Chris Goss, the Members, the Mutants, the Spammed, Urban Voodoo Machine and Jane Horrocks. He has also worked as a producer, including with Flipron and Ebony Bones.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Rat Scabies timeline

  1. Rat Scabies, Glen Matlock & Steve Mackay) (2015) "Chew On You" (2018, Cleopatra) Rock supergroup The Spammed recording Tommy Gun - Specialized Project.
  2. In February 2024 The Damned announced that, for the first time in 35 years, they would be doing a ten-date North American tour featuring their 1980s lineup of Scabies, Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible and Paul Gray.

The world when Rat Scabies was born

Rat Scabies was born in 1955. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1955

  • #1 song"Rock Around the Clock" – Bill Haley & His Comets
  • Top movieMarty
  • Top TV showThe $64,000 Question
  • Best-selling bookLolita – Vladimir Nabokov

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentBrooklyn Dodgers win their first World Series
  • Top headlineRosa Parks sparks the Montgomery Bus Boycott
  • Technology milestoneDisneyland opens in Anaheim, California
  • Defining fadJames Dean and rebel culture
  • Notable inventionVelcro commercially available
  • World population2.77 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderDwight D. Eisenhower
  • Sports championBrooklyn Dodgers (World Series)
  • Also wonSyracuse Nationals (NBA)
  • U.S. population165.3M

1955 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Rat Scabies's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19552026
Gas$0.29$3.45/gal
Average home$10,950$435,000
Average income$6,200$67,500
Minimum wage$0.75$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.50$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population165.3M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, MusicBrainz. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.