Shirley Manson

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.

Shirley Ann Manson (born 26 August 1966) is a Scottish musician and actress.

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-storied 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 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.

In 1995, Garbage released their self-titled debut album, a critical and commercial success.

The band have released seven studio albums, including the multiple Grammy Award-nominated Version 2.0 and a greatest hits album.

In 2006, Manson began to write and record solo material after Garbage went on hiatus.

In 2008, she played a liquid metal T-1001 Terminator named Catherine Weaver in the second season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

She returned to the recording studio in 2010 to write and produce material for Garbage's fifth studio album, Not Your Kind of People, released in 2012.

The band followed up with Strange Little Birds in 2016 and No Gods No Masters in 2021.

Garbage have toured worldwide and sold over 17 million records as of 2017.

She is the lead singer of the American alternative rock band Garbage, and host of The Jump with Shirley Manson (2019–2021).

Manson gained media attention for her forthright style, rebellious attitude, and distinctive deep voice.

For the majority of her career, Manson commuted between her home city of Edinburgh and the U.S. to record with Garbage, which originally formed in Madison, Wisconsin; she now lives and works primarily in Los Angeles, while maintaining a second home in Edinburgh.

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 developed a formidable stage presence, and was later approached by the band's record label with the idea of launching her as a solo artist.

She recorded an album with her band under the name Angelfish.

After seeing Manson in an Angelfish music video broadcast only once on MTV's 120 Minutes, Garbage invited her to audition, and she eventually joined the band.