Shirley Manson Fed Up With Being Treated Like a ‘Circus Performer’

Shirley Manson says she is “tired” of being treated like a “circus performer”.

The Garbage frontwoman went viral after unleashing an angry tirade at an audience member during Melbourne’s Good Things Festival on Friday (05.12.25). Her band’s set was disrupted when beach balls were tossed into the crowd, and she has no regrets about how fiercely she responded.

Shirley had shouted, “Big guy with your big f****** beach ball.

“What a f****** douchebag. You are a f****** middle-aged man in a f****** ridiculous hat, and you are a f****** fface. I want, literally, to ask people to f*** punch you in the f****** face. But you know what? I am a lady, so I won’t.

“We are fed up with not getting f****** paid properly and fed up with having to play for douchebags like you.”

After the clip sparked debate online, Shirley took to Threads and shared, “I make NO APOLOGIES whatsoever for getting annoyed at beach balls at shows.

“I joined a band because I HATED THE F****** BEACH. I joined a band because I wanted to listen to Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure and be dark and beautiful.

“I love the musical community and I want to respect their artistry. I am so tired of folks taking music for free and treating us all like circus performers.”

The Only Happy When It Rains singer admitted in September that she planned to stop touring because “the thievery of the record industry” has made performing live “very difficult”.

During a show at The Anthem in Washington, D.C., Shirley told the crowd, “We have as a band decided that, due to basically the economics of the music industry, that we have to curtail our headline touring business.

“It has, thanks to the thievery of the record industry, made touring very, very difficult. We are not complaining, we have had a f****** great run.”

She continued by saying she is raising the issue because she worries about younger musicians who struggle to keep touring.

Shirley added, “I bring this up only because my concern is of course for young musicians who go out there and tour. They are holding down jobs, they take two weeks off their work and they go around the country.

“Sometimes they are sleeping in their van, sometimes they are staying in really, really dodgy so-called motels, and it is dangerous and it is really unacceptable and it really has to stop. Whatever is going on, it really has to stop. It is unsafe and it is unacceptable.”

Shirley then spoke about what this means for the future of Garbage, saying, “So we have just decided that the economics have become untenable, so this is kind of the last time that we have decided we are going to get on a bus and just tour all over North America.

“It is a fantastic privilege and it is so beautiful and exciting and amazing. And all the more so because I doubt that we will do a tour this size ever again.

“We all feel that we have been so immensely privileged and we have enjoyed unbelievable support from our fans, from you.

“At times in the music industry, they have told us we are old, we are over, nobody is interested, nobody gives a f***, nobody wants to play us on radio, nobody wants to interview us. And then you lot came along. You were like: ‘Get behind us, Satan’. And we will not forget it.”