Shirley Manson

Shirley Ann Manson • Garbage

Shirley Ann Manson (born 26 August 1966) is a Scottish singer, songwriter, and musician who is the lead vocalist of the rock band Garbage. Deemed a "Godmother of Rock" by The New York Times, she is noted for her distinctive deep voice, forthright style, and rebellious attitude. As of 2017, Garbage have sold over 17 million records; her accolades with the band include nominations for two Brit Award...

Shirley Ann Manson (born 26 August 1966) is a Scottish singer, songwriter, and musician who is the lead vocalist of the rock band Garbage. Deemed a "Godmother of Rock" by The New York Times, she is noted for her distinctive deep voice, forthright style, and rebellious attitude. As of 2017, Garbage have sold over 17 million records; her accolades with the band include nominations for two Brit Awards and seven Grammy Awards. Manson's musical career began in her teens, when she was approached to perform backing vocals and keyboards for the band Goodbye Mr Mackenzie. She was later approached by the band's record label with the idea of launching her as a solo artist, and recorded an album with her band Angelfish. She joined Garbage in 1994, and they achieved critical and commercial success with their self-titled debut album (1995) and Version 2.0 (1998). During this period, they released a string of successful singles including "Queer", "Only Happy When It Rains", "Stupid Girl", "Milk", "Push It", "Special" and "When I Grow Up". They followed this by performing and co-producing the theme song to the 19th James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999) and releasing their acclaimed third album Beautiful Garbage (2001), preceded by successful singles including "Androgyny" and "Cherry Lips". Following the troubled production of Garbage's fourth album Bleed Like Me (2005), the group went on hiatus; during this period, they released a greatest hits album (2007). Manson began to write and record solo material in 2006, and played Catherine Weaver on the science fiction television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008). Garbage reunited in 2010, and have since released four more albums: Not Your Kind of People (2012), Strange Little Birds (2016), No Gods No Masters (2021) and the acclaimed Let All That We Imagine Be the Light (2025). Manson also hosted the music podcast The Jump with Shirley Manson (2019–2021). Early life Shirley Ann Manson was born in Edinburgh on 26 August 1966, the daughter of Muriel Flora (née MacKay) and John Mitchell Manson. Her father, a descendant from the fishing community of Northmavine, was a university lecturer, while her mother was a big band singer who had been adopted by a Lothian-based family at an early age and took on the family name MacDonald. Manson was named after an aunt, who was herself named after Charlotte Brontë's novel Shirley. She has two sisters: Lindy-Jayne who is two years older and Sarah who is two years younger. They were brought up in the Comely Bank and Stockbridge areas of Edinburgh in an old Victorian three-storey house. She attended Broughton High School and her childhood education was informed by the Church of Scotland (her father was her Sunday school teacher) until age 12. Despite not having ever considered herself an artist until her forties and still not considering herself a musician, Manson's first experiences with music are rooted in her childhood and she received education in playing many instruments. Her first public performance was in 1970, at age four, singing "Never Smile at a Crocodile" with her older sister in an amateur show held at the local Church Hill Theatre. Enrolled at Flora Stevenson Primary School, she received instruction in recorder, clarinet, and fiddle, and learned ballet and piano from extramural classes at age seven, when she also joined a choir. Manson was a member of Girlguiding UK throughout this period of her youth as a Brownie and a Girl Guide. She attended the City of Edinburgh Music School, the music department of Broughton High School. At about age nine, Manson joined the school orchestra. While at Broughton, she became an active member of its drama group, performing in amateur dramatic and musical performances such as The American Dream and The Wizard of Oz, while also singing with the Waverley Singers, a local girl choir. A 1981 Edinburgh Festival Fringe production of Maurice the Minotaur, in which Manson played a prophet, was awarded a Fringe First award by The Scotsman newspaper. While she enjoyed primary school, Manson was bullied while in her first year at secondary school, causing her to suffer from depression and body dysmorphic disorder and engage in self-injury: she carried sharp objects in the laces of her boots and would cut herself when she felt low self-esteem, stress, or anxiety. The bullying stopped when Manson associated herself with a rebel crowd, which resulted in her rebelling herself. She was absent for most of her final year at school and began smoking cannabis, sniffing glue, drinking alcohol, shoplifting, and on one occasion breaking into Edinburgh Zoo. Manson had teenage ambitions to become an actress, but was rejected by the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD). Her first job was volunteer work in a local hospital's cafeteria, then as a breakfast waitress at a local hotel, before spending five years as a shop assistant for Miss Selfridge. She started on the shop's makeup counters, but was eventually moved into stockrooms because of her attitude toward customers. She became well known throughout Edinburgh's clubbing scene; making use of free samples from Miss Selfridge, she styled hair for a number of local bands. She also briefly modelled clothing for Jackie magazine. Music career Early work and recognition Manson's first musical experiences came from briefly singing with local Edinburgh acts The Wild Indians and performed backing vocals with Autumn 1904. While she was performing with her group, Manson was approached by Goodbye Mr Mackenzie's lead Martin Metcalfe to join his band. Manson was in a relationship with Metcalfe initially, but remained working with the band after splitting from him and became a prominent member, performing keyboards, backing vocals and becoming involved in the band's business side. Manson's first release with the Mackenzies was a YTS release of "Death of a Salesman" in 1984. The group signed a major-label record deal with Capitol Records in 1987, and they released their first album Good Deeds and Dirty Rags, and their only UK top 40 entry "The Rattler". In 1990, the group's contract was transferred to Parlophone, another EMI label, but after two singles failed to chart Parlophone declined to release the group's second album Hammer and Tongs. Gary Kurfirst, who managed Talking Heads and Debbie Harry, bought the Mackenzies contract and issued their second album through his own label Radioactive Records, a subsidiary of MCA Records. After another single failed to chart, the group were persuaded to leave Radioactive by their management. The Mackenzies continued to write material; Manson was also given the opportunity to record lead vocals on a number of tracks planned for the band's third album. Although MCA had no desire to further their commitments to Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie, the label expressed interest in recording an album with Manson, and after hearing several demos, Kurfirst signed Manson to Radioactive as a solo artist, with the remaining Mackenzies performing as her backing band to circumvent the band's existing deal with MCA. Manson's contract obliged her to deliver at least one album and, at the sole option of Radioactive, up to six additional albums. Recording under the name Angelfish, and using some of the newly written material and a previously released Mackenzie b-side, Manson and the group recorded the tracks that would make up the Angelfish album in Connecticut with Talking Heads' Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth. A lead-in track, "Suffocate Me", was sent to college radio where it was well received. Angelfish and second single "Heartbreak to Hate" followed in 1994. Angelfish toured Belgium, Canada, France, and the U.S. The band co-supported Live on a tour of North America, along with Vic Chestnutt. The music video for "Suffocate Me" was aired once on MTV's 120 Minutes. Breakthrough with Garbage Producer and musician Steve Marker caught the broadcast of "Suffocate Me" and thought Manson would be a great singer for his band, Garbage, which also featured producers Duke Erikson and Butch Vig. Vig invited Manson to Smart Studios to sing on a couple of tracks. After an unsuccessful audition, she returned to Angelfish. Manson admitted she felt intimidated showcasing herself to Vig, who produced bands she admired such as Nirvana, Sonic Youth, and The Smashing Pumpkins, and Vig added that the audition's disorganized nature along with the Americans not understanding Manson's Scottish accent caused communication problems. At the end of the Live tour, Angelfish imploded and Manson returned to Smart for a second try. She began to work on the then-skeletal origins of some songs and the band invited her to become a full-time member and finish the album; she co-wrote and co-produced the entire album with the rest of the band. In August 1994, Radioactive gave their permission for Manson to work with Garbage. The band's debut album Garbage was released in August 1995, and went on to sell over 4 million copies, buoyed by a run of high charting singles including "Only Happy When It Rains" and "Stupid Girl." Manson quickly became the public face of the band over the course of a tour that took the band through to the end of 1996. Echo & the Bunnymen had asked Manson to sing on their 1997 comeback album. Manson became the band's chief songwriter for the follow-up record Version 2.0 which equalled the success of the band's debut record after its May 1998 release. During the two-year tour in support of the record, Manson modelled for Calvin Klein. Manson lived in hotels throughout the recording periods of the debut and Version 2.0. Garbage recorded the theme song to the James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough in 1999, and Manson became the third Scotswoman to sing a Bond theme after Lulu and Sheena Easton. In the accompanying video, she portrays an android assassin. For the recording of Garbage's third record throughout 2000, Manson became one of the first high-profile artists to write a blog online, while she decided to improve her guitar playing for the band's next tour. The band's third album, Beautiful Garbage, did not sell as well as its predecessors, but Garbage performed a successful world tour in support of it. During a concert at the Roskilde Festival, Manson's voice gave out. She afterwards discovered a vocal fold cyst, and had to undergo corrective surgery. Garbage's fourth record, Bleed Like Me, was released in 2005 after the surprise success of lead-in single "Why Do You Love Me". The album posted some of the band's highest chart positions upon release. Garbage then began an extended hiatus in October 2005. Solo efforts and collaborations Manson confirmed in March 2006 that she had begun work on a solo album, working with musician Paul Buchanan, producer Greg Kurstin, and film composer David Arnold, stating that she had "no timetable" for completing the project. In 2007, Manson collaborated with Rivers Cuomo of Weezer. Manson presented some of her work to Geffen Records in 2008, who found it "too noir", prompting Manson and Geffen to terminate her contract by mutual agreement. Manson later elaborated, "[Geffen] wanted me to have international radio hits and 'be the Annie Lennox of my generation'. I kid you not; I am quoting directly." "I made a quiet, very dark, non-radio-friendly record," she recalled. "I'm not interested in writing nursery rhymes for the masses." During Garbage's hiatus, in 2007, they reformed to perform a short set at a benefit show to raise cash to pay for Wally Ingram's medical treatment, shared song ideas via the internet, recorded new material, and filmed a music video to promote the band's Absolute Garbage greatest hits compilation. Manson continued to write material while without a record deal and had been in talks with David Byrne and Ray Davies about a potential collaboration. In 2009, Manson posted three demos on her Facebook profile, written with Kurstin, titled "In the