Shirley Ann Manson (born 26 August 1966) is a
Scottish musician,
actress, and the lead
vocalist of the band
Garbage.
She began her career in
Edinburgh in the early 1980s, most notably performing
backing vocals and
keyboards for local band
Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie before fronting side-project
Angelfish while signed as a solo artist. Having seen Manson in an Angelfish
video on
MTV, Garbage invited Manson to record with them as the band's
lead singer.
[153 F.Supp.2d 462 RADIOACTIVE, J.V., Plaintiff, v. Shirley MANSON, Defendant. No. 01 Civ.1948(SAS). United States District Court, S.D. New York. (July 29, 2001)]
With Garbage on hiatus after four successful studio albums, one greatest hits compilation and over 14 million record sales,
[Tell Me Where It Hurts promo CD PR sticker (issued June 2007) (Retrieved - 2007-12-05)] Manson began recording solo material in 2006 and continues to embark on a solo career. Although fans anticipated a 2008 release of new material, complications with record company Geffen, which was turned off by the dark nature of Manson's music, make a 2008 release unlikely.
Shirley Manson was cast on
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles as a series regular
Catherine Weaver, the
CEO of a major technology company, and also an antagonist terminator, for the second season.
She also sings the
Blind Willie Johnson song heard in the opening scene of "Samson and Delilah," the first episode of that season.
Early life
Shirley Manson was born in Edinburgh,
Scotland, in 1966 to John and Muriel Manson, a
geneticist and former
big band singer respectively.
She was named after an aunt who was named after
Charlotte Brontë's novel
Shirley. She was born middle-child between older sister Lindy-Jayne and younger sister Sarah, and was brought up in the
Stockbridge area of the city.
Manson learned to play the
piano at age seven, and later attended the
City of Edinburgh Music School, the music department of
Broughton High.
She was a member of
Girlguiding UK as a
Brownie and a
Guide.
While at Broughton, Manson became an active member of its drama group, acting in plays such as
The American Dream and
The Wizard of Oz. Manson was
bullied and beaten up due to her red hair and large eyes. She suffered from
depression as a teenager and engaged in
self-injury: she carried a sharp object in the laces of her boots and cut herself when she felt stress, depression, or anxiety.
Bullied as a Child
Manson was bullied until she associated herself with a rebel crowd, and played
truant for most of her final year at school.
She also began to experiment with drugs: she smoked
cannabis and sniffed glue, drank,
shoplifted, and once broke into the
Edinburgh Zoo.
Manson's 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, beginning on the
make-up counter.
Manson was eventually moved into stockrooms for her attitude to customers. Despite her own feelings towards her look, Manson also briefly
modeled clothing for
Jackie magazine.
Music career
Manson became a regular on Edinburgh's
clubbing scene, and, equipped with free samples from Miss Selfridge, was well known as the hair stylist for a number of local bands.
She sang with The Wild Indians and performed backing vocals with Autumn 1984, but had moved on by the time either act put out any work.
Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie
At a local theatre group, Manson was approached by Martin Metcalfe, of
Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie, to join his band. Manson initially became romantically involved with Metcalfe, but remained in the group after their split and became a prominent member, playing keyboards, singing backing vocals and was very involved in the business side of the group. Manson's first release with the Mackenzies was a
YTS release of
Death of a Salesman in 1984.
Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie's distributor,
MCA Records, expressed interest in putting out a record with Manson and signed her in February 1993 as a solo artist to circumvent the Mackenzie's existing deal (though MCA kept several members of the band as backing musicians).
[{{citation | title = Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie "Hammer And Tongs" {album notes} | date = 2005 re-issue}}] Her solo contract obligated Manson to deliver at least one album and, at the sole option of Radioactive, up to six additional albums.
Angelfish
Angelfish recorded their album
Angelfish in
Connecticut with
Talking Heads'
Chris Frantz and
Tina Weymouth, with a single release of "Suffocate Me" in June 1993 on the Wasteland label. The album followed in February 1994 with second single "Heartbreak To Hate," and was well received on
college radio.
Angelfish toured the
United States,
Canada,
France,
Belgium, and co-supported
Live on a tour of
North America, along with
Vic Chestnutt. Around the time of these dates MTV's
120 Minutes aired the band's video for "Suffocate Me." Producer and musician
Steve Marker had seen the airing and thought Manson would be a great singer for his band, Garbage, which also featured producers
Duke Erikson and
Butch Vig but had no lead, but were set on having a woman as their singer.
Garbage
Vig invited Manson to Smart Studios to sing on a couple of tracks. After an unsuccessful audition, she returned to Angelfish.
At the end 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 of the band and finish the album.
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.
Manson became the band's chief song-writer for the follow up record
Version 2.0 which equaled the success of the band's debut record after its May 1998 release. During the two year tour in support of the record, Manson modeled for
Calvin Klein and the group recorded the theme song to
James Bond movie
The World Is Not Enough, becoming the third Scotswoman to sing a Bond theme after
Lulu and
Sheena Easton.
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. Their third album,
beautifulgarbage, featured Manson's most forward and personal lyrics to date. The album did not sell as well as its predecessors, but Garbage performed a successful world tour in support of it.
Manson's lyrics became more overtly political for Garbage's fourth record, 2005's
Bleed Like Me, which after the surprise success of lead-in single "
Why Do You Love Me", posted some of the band's highest chart positions upon release. Garbage began an extended hiatus in October 2005.
Garbage reformed to play a tribute show in 2007, as well as record some new tracks for greatest hits album
Absolute Garbage, Vig has said the band may reform in 2008, with the goal of recording a fifth album. While Garbage did indeed reform in 2008 to fashion a new track entitled "Witness To Your Love" for a charity album sold exclusively at Urban Outfitters stores nationwide, Manson told Carson Daly on his late-night talk show that she is uncertain as to whether or not Garbage will gather to create a fifth studio record.
Solo
Throughout 2006 and 2007 several rumours, stating Manson was kept busy recording a solo record, collaborating with songwriter
Paul Buchanan, US rock musicians
Jack White,
Billy Corgan and
Beck,
producer and keyboardist
Greg Kurstin,
James Bond soundtrack composer
David Arnold,
and that Garbage drummer and former
Nirvana/
Smashing Pumpkins producer
Butch Vig was also co-writing and producing for her album, were going through media.
[ ]
This, however, has been recently refuted by Shirley herself on her
Facebook page.
During this time Manson has also worked with
Eric Avery on a duet for his debut album,
with
Debbie Harry on a duet,
and also played a
dominatrix in the promotional video for
She Wants Revenge's single "These Things."
Recently, Shirley expressed to an interviewer during her charity event in Scotland for MAC Viva Glam that she was ready to release the album. The execs at Geffen heard them and declared it to be too "
noir" for them, which she took as a compliment. After having a discussion about the path she would take, and seeing they were having really opposite points of view, Shirley asked to be dropped by the label. In a November 2008 interview
.
, when asked about the aborted Geffen release, Manson said: "I had taken some of my solo music into the record label. They didn't really care for the direction I was moving in and I found it really disheartening. They wanted a pop hit, which I understand in terms of making money. I get that. But what they were going to ask of me was something I wasn't prepared to deliver and I felt kind of trapped. I just stopped writing. I just stopped. It was stifling. "
On October 2nd, 2008, Shirley mentioned on the Late Show with Carson Daly that she never had a full album or songs, only tracks to bring to her cohorts at Geffen. Shortly before she dropped from
Geffen, she was called about
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. She is now in LA writing and producing her work, most likely with her love interest and sound engineer Billy Bush. Her album is likely to be out by mid 2009.
Manson sings on the track "The Trouble I'm In" with
Gavin Rossdale of
Bush on his debut solo album
WANDERlust. She also recorded a cover of the
Human League's "Don't You Want Me Baby" with
Marilyn Manson, but the track has yet to be released
.
.
Influences
Manson has stated that some of her biggest influences are
Siouxsie of
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Debbie Harry of
Blondie,
Patti Smith and
Chrissie Hynde of
The Pretenders.
[PETA2 // Out There // Shirley Manson: Fur Is Garbage]
Discography
Studio albums
Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie (credited with backing vocals and keyboards)
Angelfish (lead vocals and guitar)
Garbage (songwriter, lead vocals, and guitar)
Solo
Other appearances
In 2002, electronic group West London Deep
sampled Manson's vocal from "
You Look So Fine" in their
white label track "You're Taking Me Over". Manson refused
clearance for the sample and the track was scrapped. By that point the track, and remixes by Inner City, Problem Kids and
Desyn Masiello & Leon Roberts had already been circulated.
The song was reworked and re-released the following year as "Gonna Make You My Lover", without Manson's vocal.
A duet
cover version of
Human League's "
Don't You Want Me" recorded in January 2004
with
Marilyn Manson remains unreleased.
Acting
The premiere episode of the
second season of
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles — featuring Manson as a cast member — prominently featured her cover of "
Samson and Delilah."
In
The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Manson plays both CEO Catherine Weaver and also a new type of terminator sent by
Skynet, T-1001, whose mission is to support Skynet's creation. She cites actress
Glenn Close and former British
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as influences for her portrayal.
[Shirley's Thatcher Inspiration, Metro, 11/09/2008]
Charity work
In 2002, Manson became an ambassador for the
M•A•C AIDS Fund, fronting a two-year campaign alongside
Elton John and
Mary J. Blige, beginning with the launch of the VIVAMAC IV
lipstick, in which all proceeds of the sale of the lipstick goes to charity. In 2007 the campaign had raised over $100 million U.S. dollars, and as a former ambassador for the campaign, Manson was allowed to present $100,000 to a charity of her choice. She donated it to Waverley Care.
Shirley Manson was made
patron of Edinburgh-based
HIV charity Waverley Care in 2002. She hosted a
fund raiser auction on January 4, 2004 at Edinburgh's Prestonfield House which raised £45,000, including the sale of a
Fender guitar owned by Manson, which itself raised £1,050. Manson accepted a cheque for £51,000 on behalf of Waverley Care from the M•A•C AIDS Fund on April 10, 2008 at
Harvey Nichols Edinburgh store.
[ ]
In 2007, Manson fronted a poster campaign for
PETA, holding the carcass of a fox under the headline "Here’s the rest of your fur coat". PETA Europe approached Manson to front the campaign, which included heavy use in Edinburgh, her home town, Manson stated "I felt like I had a chance to add my voice to the dissent against the way animals can be treated all over the world by all persons."
