Punk was a byword for revolution, but 35 years on, and with another royal jubilee this summer, most of the leading lights of that youth movement have moved on – one way or another.
Though there’s the the odd exception. It’s something about the drummers, perhaps – Terry Chimes, original sticksman with The Clash, is now a chiropractor, while The Jam’s Rick Buckler was a furniture restorer – before he got back behind the kit, anyway.
Similarly, when he’s not being Scabies, punk legend, Rat adopts his alter-ego – Holy Grail Hunter.
More of that later. Rat is on his way to Scotland and various stops around the UK with bandmate Brian James under the monicker ‘Scabies and James play Damned Damned Damned’ – a celebration of the first UK punk album, which appeared in February 1977.
And for Rat this is a natural show to perform.
“We’ve been working on and off together since ‘76,” he says of guitarist and chief songwriter, Brian James, “so it wasn’t a ‘forced’ thing.
“It just seemed right with the 35th anniversary of the album – since it was him that wrote it!”
The other half of the original band – Sensible and Vanian – have already toured as their part of the anniversary – though Rat laughs that they don’t play ‘Stab Yor Back’, the only tune penned by him. Joining them in the band are bassist Austpig (Flat Pigs) and Chex (Murder of Crows) – who according to Scabies does a good job of taking Vanian’s place without impersonating him.
He’s wary of all-out tribute acts though is fine with bands keeping the songs alive. “I tend to prefer a band who write their own songs – I prefer covers to tribute bands”. Which is as well as locals Cash from Chaos will support at Bathgate.
They will also play selections from the much-forgotten ‘difficult second album Music for Pleasure. At the time it was seen as a strange mix at best – produced by Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason it flies in the face of that old punk maxim “Never trust a hippy”.
“We wrote it in three months versus three years for the first” Scabies points out. “We’d toyed with being psychedelic – we’d been listening to lots of 60s garage like the Electric Prunes. So (Mason as producer) seemed like a good place to go… but it didn’t work out.
“He did a good job of keeping the band under control though,” he says of the Floyd drummer – “though we could have done with more echo!”
So some good did come out of their sophomore effort. “It was a good experience – we got Lol Coxill (left field hero of avant garde jazz) on sax… we met him at a petrol station, and asked him to come and play – so he did”.
However, that aside it was the beginning of the end. By then the band was “starting to disintegrate – there’s not a lot of happy memories from that period.”
Rat still seems surprised at the longevity of the debut album – “It was supposed to be disposable pop music! But it stands up as a record – and people still seem to like it…”
As well as putting out the first UK’s punk album and single in ‘New Rose’ they were first to tour the USA. Unfortunately a return trip across the pond is on hold, the recession meaning the pair have to be more circumspect about their next moves. “You can’t go to Morrisons and offer a drum solo for a pint of milk,” he points out.
Many bands tire of the constant touring, but not Rat, who has been busy since 77, in various bands of his own as well as incarnations of The Damned, up to and beyond the time when the band had a string of chart singles. But it will be the classic early non-hits – ‘New Rose’, ‘Neat Neat Neat’, ‘Problem Child’, ‘Stretcher Case’ – that will form the main part of their set.
Since leaving The Damned in the 90s, Rat has filled in for various acts, the best-known being The Members. They’re a band who like The Damned are missing a vital element, singer Nicky Tesco, who would “love to do it” according to Rat – unfortunately ill-health allows Tesco to only attend the odd reunion close to his London home. He notes that original/reformed ’Members’ JC Carroll and Chris Payne “get stick” for Nicky not being in the band – rather like, as I point out, the calls of “Where’s Scabies?” at the Damned’s Picturehouse gig late last year, and doubtless calls that Austpig and Chex will experience at points during their tour.
However, he still enjoys touring – “1000 miles a day, we’re sticking it to the man,” he laughs. “It’s like a school trip, we make up cheese sandwiches, and try and stop off somewhere interesting.”
Band tours, whether with The Members or the upcoming one which takes in Dundee, Edinburgh and Bathgate, are what you might call a busman’s holiday, as every spare moment seems to be taken up by his other hobby – some might say obsession – the Holy Grail.
This is well documented in a book by former music journo and friend Chris Dawes entitled ‘Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail’, covering his many trips to Rennes Le-Chateau in France as well as Rosslyn Chapel and Newbattle Abbey.
“To be honest I got fed up with being the mad drummer bloke, so I’m pleased to be seen in a different light”, he says. He’s often up in Scotland anyway, producing Edinburgh punks the Gin Goblins, who support at the Edinburgh show at Henry’s Cellar on Good Friday. “I’m a part-time resident,” he says.
And Scotland’s own mysteries aren’t far from his mind. “I was shown a very strange pair of trousers,” he reveals (further investigation shows that these were those worn by Dechmont abductee Bob Taylor”. The meetings of the Sauniere Society, which will be addressed at Newbattle Abbey next month by The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail author Henry Lincoln, attract people whose theories and beliefs cover a wide and bizarre range. “The Grail acts as a doorway to other things – ley lines, UFOs… I’m still sceptical, but it doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”
I have to let Rat go and prepare for another journey north from his London home. The Newbattle weekend starts on Friday 13th (!) April – a week after the trio of Scottish Easter gigs, and two weeks after a string of Members shows in the south of England. Does he not tire of the constant traveling?
“We suffered for our art,” he cackles. ” Now it’s your turn!”
‘Scabies and James play Damned Damned Damned’:
Friday April 6th, Citrus Club, Edinburgh with Gin Goblins
Saturday April 7th, Beat Generator, Dundee, with Diddums and Rabid Dogs
Sunday, April 8th, Dreadnought Bathgate, with Cash From Chaos