Rat Scabies trails debut solo album
Rat Scabies has announced his forthcoming debut solo album P.H.D. (Prison, Hospital, Debt) for release on Cleopatra Records on 18 May. Recorded over several years, the album features 11 original tracks, as well as a version of Louis Prima’s ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’.
Hear the album’s lead track ‘Chew on You’ below. Written by Scabies, who also plays drums, guitar, keyboards and cigar box guitar here, Jesse Budd of Flipron contributes lyrics and vocals, with Nick Oblivion on bass guitar.
“I have written music ever since I threw together ‘Stab Your Back’ [for The Damned] and have been recording ideas right up until the very week that PHD was due to be mastered. This is the music I created over a period of years – starting then and ending now,” he says.
“Like Charlie Watts said, it’s 5 years work and 25 years hanging around, well during the hanging around periods I always had the itch to learn how music and recording studios worked so I would sit down and plonk on a guitar or a piano until it sounded like music, I carried on with the process over the years and eventually graduated into having my own recording studio and a bunch of songs which for one reason or another had never seen the light of day.”
“In 2017, Matt Green suggested I release a solo compilation album of previously released material. I didn’t see the point, so I suggested instead that I put together my neglected back catalogue, which was not just about that mad drummer bloke thrashing a kit, but instead showed some of the more musical, humorous and diverse elements that made up my percentage of the Damned.
Over the past forty years, Rat has played countless live shows and recorded numerous studio albums. He has collaborated with many top musicians, such as Robert Fripp, Lemmy, Donovan and Neville Staple, as well as Joe Strummer, Jimmy Page, and The Eagles Of Death Metal.
‘P.H.D. (Prison, Hospital, Debt) can be pre-ordered on vinyl (red or white vinyl) and CD via Cleopatra Records or digitally via Bandcamp.
Tracklist:
1. Chew On You
2. My Wrists Hurt
3. Sing Sing Sing
4. Rat’s Opus
5. Floating
6. Shivers
7. Dazy Bones
8. Benni’s Song
9. Un Noveau Balai (A New Broom)
10. Floydian Slip
11. Glad You Could Make It
12. It Feels Like Sunday
Rat Scabies will be holding two events to mark this album’s release. On Sunday, May 20 in Southsea (Portsmouth), Tales & Tea with Rat Scabies includes a Q&A session and album signing (TeaTray Cafe, Osbourne Road, Southsea – Doors 5pm, Show 5.45pm). On Monday, May 21 in Lewes (East Sussex), Talking & Tales with Rat Scabies follows the same format at the Lewes Con Club (139 High Street, BN7 1XS Lewes, East Sussex).
