Shirley Manson

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Biography

Shirley Ann Manson (born 26 August 1966) is a Scottish people|Scottish recording artist and actress, best known internationally as the lead singer of the alternative rock band Garbage (band)|Garbage . For much of her international career Manson commuted between her home city of Edinburgh to the United States to record with Garbage but now lives and works in Los Angeles . Manson gained media attention for her forthright style, rebellious attitude, and distinctive voice, which also won her fans throughout the world. Manson has an contralto vocal range. http://www.trueknowledge.com/q/facts_about__shirley_manson

Manson's musical career began in her teens when she was approached to perform Backing vocalist|backing vocals and Keyboard instrument|keyboards for Scottish band Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie . Quickly she developed into a prominent member of the group and developed a formidable stage presence. Manson was approached by her band's record label with the idea of launching her as a solo artist , and recorded an album with her band under the Angelfish (band)|Angelfish name. After seeing Manson in an Angelfish music video|video broadcast only once on MTV 's 120 Minutes , Garbage invited Manson to record vocals on a few of their songs; she eventually co-wrote and co-produced an entire album with the band.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. (29 July 2001) The resulting self-titled debut, Garbage (album)|Garbage , was a worldwide hit, and was followed by three studio albums, including the multiple Grammy Award -nominated Version 2.0 , and a Absolute Garbage|greatest hits album . Garbage toured worldwide and sold 12 million record sales over ten years.

In 2006, Manson began to write and record solo material after Garbage was put on "hiatus" and in 2008 was cast in her first professional acting role on the second and final season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles as series regular Catherine Weaver , a Shapeshifting#In popular culture|liquid metal T-1001 Terminator (character concept)|Terminator . Manson returned to the recording studio in 2010 to write and produce material for a fifth Garbage album.

Manson has been voted at #60 on the VH1s 100 Sexiest Artists list. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004945/bio#trivia

Life and career

Shirley Anne Manson was born in 1966 to John Mitchell and Muriel Flora Manson (née MacKay) at the Queen Mary Maternity Home in Edinburgh .Information gleaned from exhibition research and materials showcased at Famous Scots Exhibition held at New Register House, Edinburgh; Shirley Manson leg ran from 25 May – 17 July 2009, under the Homecoming Scotland banner John Mitchell, a descendant from the fishing community of Northmavine , Shetland , was a university lecturer while Muriel 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). Shirley was named after an aunt who was herself named after Charlotte Brontë 's novel Shirley (novel)|Shirley . She was born with two years between both older sister Lindy-Jayne and younger sister Sarah, and was brought up in the Comely Bank and Stockbridge, Edinburgh|Stockbridge areas of the city. Manson attended Presbyterian church until the age of 12, where her father was also her Sunday School teacher.

Manson's first public performance was in 1970, at age four, with her older sister, in Edinburgh amateur theatre|an amateur show held at the local Church Hill, Edinburgh|Church Hill Theatre . Enrolled at Flora Stevenson Primary School, Manson received instruction in recorder (instrument)|recorder , clarinet and fiddle , and learned ballet and piano from extramural classes at age seven. Manson was a member of Girlguiding UK throughout this period of her youth as a Brownie (Girl Guides)|Brownie and a Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting|Guide , Manson attended the City of Edinburgh Music School , the music department of Broughton High School, Edinburgh|Broughton High . While at Broughton, Manson became an active member of its drama group, performing in amateur dramatic and musical performances such as The American Dream (play)|The American Dream and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz|The Wizard of Oz , while also singing with the Waverley Singers, a local girl choir . Other notable members of the drama group included Hilary MacLean, Rebecca Pigeon and Sara Stewart ; while a production of Maurice the Minotaur (in which Manson played a prophet) during the 1981 Edinburgh Festival Fringe was awarded a Fringe First award by The Scotsman newspaper.

While Manson had enjoyed primary school , Manson was bullying|bullied while in her first year at secondary school , causing her to suffer from clinical depression|depression and engage in self-injury : she carried a sharp object in the laces of her boots and 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; playing Truancy|truant for most of her final year at school, smoking Cannabis (drug)|cannabis and sniffing glue, drinking, shoplift ing, and on one occasion breaking into 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. Manson became well known throughout Edinburgh's nightclub|clubbing scene , and making use of free samples from Miss Selfridge, styled hair for a number of local bands. Manson also briefly model (person)|modeled clothing for Jackie (magazine)|Jackie magazine.

Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie

Gary Kurfirst , who managed Talking Heads and Debbie Harry|Deborah Harry , bought the Mackenzies contract and issued their second album through his own label Radioactive Records|Radioactive , a subsidiary of MCA Records|MCA . 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 demo (music)|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 obligated her to deliver at least one album and, at the sole option of Radioactive, up to six additional albums.

Angelfish

Recording under the name Angelfish (band)|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)|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 the United States, Canada, France, Belgium, and co-supported Live (band)|Live on a tour of North America, along with Vic Chestnutt . The music video for "Suffocate Me" was aired on MTV 's 120 Minutes . Producer and musician Steve Marker caught the broadcast and thought Manson would be a great singer for his band, Garbage, which also featured producers Duke Erikson and Butch Vig .

Garbage

Manson became the band's chief song-writer 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 . The group recorded the The World Is Not Enough (song)|theme song to the James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough , and Manson became the third Scotswoman to sing a Bond theme after Lulu (singer)|Lulu and Sheena Easton . In the accompanying video, she portrays an android (robot)|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. Their third album, Beautiful Garbage|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. During this period, in 2007, Garbage 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. Garbage returned to the studio in 2010 to write and record material for a fifth album.

A few months into Garbage's hiatus, Manson began writing a solo record, working with songwriter The Blue Nile|Paul Buchanan , producer Greg Kurstin , soundtrack composer David Arnold , and Garbage drummer Butch Vig. In 2007, Manson called up a group of artists to collaborate in the creation of songs, including Rivers Cuomo , who at that point had never co-written material with anyone. Manson presented some of her work to Geffen Records in 2008, who found it "too Film noir|noir ", prompting Manson and Geffen to mutually terminate her contract. Manson continues to write material Unsigned artist|while without a record deal and has contacted David Byrne and Ray Davies in hopes of potential collaborations. Manson has posted three demo (music)|demos on her Facebook profile, written by her and Kurstin, titled "In the Snow", "Pretty Horses" and "Lighten Up".
Manson also worked with a number of artists outside her solo project, reciting a verse of a long poem for a Chris Connelly (musician)|Chris Connelly album, recording duets with Eric Avery and Debbie Harry and performing backing vocals on a Gavin Rossdale track. Although not recording material with them, Manson also performed on-stage with The Pretenders , Iggy Pop , Incubus (band)|Incubus and Kings of Leon in Atlantic City , with Gwen Stefani and a further twice with No Doubt in Universal City, California|Universal City . Manson also performed in an uncredited role as a dominatrix in the music video for She Wants Revenge 's single " These Things ". Most recently Manson sings on a track written by Serj Tankian entitled "The Hunger", an exclusive single from the rock musical Prometheus Bound .

Personal life

Manson has long been interested in spirituality. She later recalled, "when I was very small, I was very besotted with the church, absolutely, I loved the theatre of it and I got very involved in all the stories we were taught." Her father was also her Sunday school teacher. When she was about 12, she had a huge fight with her father over the dinner table, screaming at him that "religion's a sham, ... and I'm not going to church any more, it's just bullshit". She stopped going to church, but continued to have theological debates with her father every Sunday. She became disenchanted with organised religion and although she maintained an interest in spirituality she complained that she "brushed up against too many examples of "hypocritical" spiritualists." Manson claimed on her Facebook page to be in favour of "science but also maybe a little bit of spirituality... I am not scared of God but I am scared of the word".

Manson married Scottish artist Eddie Farrell in September 1996, having been together for six years. The couple split around 2001; their divorce was finalised by 2003. Manson was later reported to have become engaged in 2008, and in May 2010, married record producer and Garbage sound engineer Billy Bush (producer)|Billy Bush in a Los Angeles court house.

Musical influence

Manson's earliest musical memories were of her mother, who sang with a big band when Manson was a child. Manson was exposed to classic jazz records as she grew up and work by Nina Simone , Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald . Early in Manson's teenage years, she became a fan of Siouxsie and the Banshees albums The Scream (album)|The Scream and Kaleidoscope (Siouxsie & the Banshees album)|Kaleidoscope , and taught herself how to sing listening to those albums, later stating "many of the songs of those two albums were massive loves of my life".Shirley Manson, foreword of 'Siouxsie & The Banshees The Authorised Biography', Mark Paytress, Sanctuary 2003, page 8 Vocalist Siouxsie Sioux embodied how Manson aspired to be as a teen. Manson would later write the foreword to Siouxsie & The Banshees: The Authorised Biography .Paytress, Mark. Siouxsie & the Banshees: The Authorised Biography . Foreword by Shirley Manson, Sanctuary, 2003. ISBN 1-86074-375-7

At nineteen, Manson discovered Patti Smith , and specifically Smith's Horses (album)|Horses album, which made a "strong impact" on her. Manson was inspired to learn guitar by Chrissie Hynde , while also appreciating the style of Debbie Harry of Blondie (band)|Blondie , whose 2006 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech was delivered by Manson. The majority of Manson's influences were female musicians; however she also notes David Bowie as an inspiring male musician. Manson also grew up listening to Ian Brown , Nick Cave , Frank Sinatra , The Clash and The Velvet Underground .

Manson herself has been credited with inspiring a new generation of female artists; including Ritzy Bryan (the lead singer and guitarist of The Joy Formidable ), Taylor Momsen , and Katy Perry as well as her contemporaries such as Kylie Minogue , "Kylie: La La La" written by Kylie Minogue and William Baker Hodder & Staughton ISBN 0-340-73439-6 (accessed Oct 28th, 2010) Gwen Stefani and Courtney Love . Manson has also personally given her support to Peaches (musician)|Peaches , Brody Dalle , Karen O , and Skylar Grey at the beginning of their respective careers.

Discography

Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie

Credited with backing vocals and keyboards

Good Deeds and Dirty Rags (1988)

Hammer and Tongs (1991)

Five (Goodbye Mr Mackenzie album)|Five (1993)

Angelfish

Credited with lead vocals and guitar

Angelfish (album)|Angelfish (1994)

Garbage

Credited with songwriting, lead vocals and guitar

Garbage (album)|Garbage (1995)

Version 2.0 (1998)

Beautiful Garbage (2001)

Bleed Like Me (2005)

Not Your Kind of People (2012)

Featured appearances

Year	Track	Artist	Credit given	Appears on
1998	Korean Bodega (Aero Mexicana mix) "	Fun Lovin' Criminals	Guest vocals
2004	"You Got a Killer Scene There, Man..."	Queens of the Stone Age	Sultry vocals
2006	"Maybe"	Eric Avery	Vocals, lyrics	Help Wanted (2008)cite web
2007	"The Trouble I'm In"	Gavin Rossdale	Vocals	Wanderlust (2008)cite web
2007	"Forgiveness and Exile, Pt.3"	Chris Connelly (musician)>Chris Connelly	Orator
2008	Samson and Delilah "	Bear McCreary	Vocals	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles OST (2008)cite web
2010	Maneater "	The Bird and the Bee	Backing vocals	A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates (2010)
2011	"The Hunger"	Shirley Manson & Serj Tankian	Vocals	Prometheus Bound OST (2011)cite web

The first time Manson contributed her vocals to a project separately from any of her bands was in 1998, when she performed vocals for the chorus of a Garbage-produced remix of Fun Lovin' Criminals 1999 single " Korean Bodega ". Due to litigation problems surrounding Manson's contractual obligation to Radioactive Records, further collaborations with both Fun Lovin' Criminals and Moby were unable to proceed.

Manson teamed up with Marilyn Manson and Tim Sköld in 2004 to record a cover version of the Human League 's " Don't You Want Me " but both felt the track inappropriate for either acts upcoming albums, and remains unreleased. Later that year, Manson and Brody Dalle contributed backing vocals to a Queens of the Stone Age track. In 2006, Manson planned to record a John Lennon cover version for the Amnesty International Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur|Instant Karma charity compilation with bassist Eric Avery , however a scheduling misunderstanding left them short of time and unable to record the song. Manson and Avery eventually co-wrote and recorded "Maybe", a ballad duet for Avery's album Help Wanted (album)|Help Wanted .

The following year, Manson performed backing vocals on a track for Gavin Rossdale 's solo album Wanderlust , worked with long-time friend Chris Connelly, orating part of a long poem on his eighth album Forgiveness and Exile , and worked on a duet with long time inspiration Debbie Harry which remains uncompleted. In 2008, Manson contributed to a Dusty Springfield tribute album , with an unspecified release date.

Upon her taking on the role of Catherine Weaver in Terminator... and on the encouragement of series' composer Bear McCreary, Manson was asked by show runner Josh Friedman to perform and co-create a gospel arrangement of "Samson and Delilah" for the opening episode of the second season. After much interest, the track was released on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (soundtrack)|Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Dungeons and Dragons (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)|season one soundtrack at the end of 2008. Three years later Manson recorded vocals to a track composed by Serj Tankian and Steven Sater . The track, "The Hunger", which Sater describes as exploring "the hunger of the heart", features on their rock musical adaptation of Prometheus Bound , and was recreated with fresh instrumentation and new lyrics for the digital release, exclusively through iTunes worldwide. All proceeds made from sales of the single will benefit Amnesty International .

Sampling

In 2002, electronic group West London Deep sample (music)|sampled Manson's vocal from " You Look So Fine " in their white label track "You're Taking Me Over". Manson refused Authorization|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.

Other work

Acting

Manson was cast in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles in May 2008, after being asked to appear by series creator Josh Friedman and enduring a multiple audition process, beating out other actresses including Julie Ann Emery . She debuted in the season two premiere episode " List of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles episodes#Season 2: 2008 - 2009|Samson and Delilah " as Catherine Weaver, a CEO of a technology company, ZeiraCorp. At the conclusion of the episode, Weaver is revealed to be a liquid-metal T-1001 Terminator. Manson also performed and Arrangement|co-arranged a rock and blues version of the gospel song " Samson and Delilah (song)|Samson and Delilah " for the episode's Film score|score . Manson cites actress Glenn Close and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as her acting influences for the ambiguous character. Manson also played the human Weaver in archive footage viewed by the T-1001 in the episode "The Tower is Tall, But the Fall is Short".

In 2009, Manson made her first venture into the videogame industry by becoming digitally mapped to create an Avatar (computing)|avatar of herself for the Guitar Hero franchise. In the fifth game in the series, Manson is an unlockable character , while the game also features a licensed Garbage track.

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	Monster Beach Party	Debbie Danco	showreel .cite web
2008–2009	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles	T-1001
2008–2009	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles	Catherine Weaver	in-universe archive footage.
2009	Guitar Hero 5	as herself	Garbage track " Only Happy When it Rains ".
2012	Knife Fight	Nicole

Charity work

Manson has used her and Garbage's profile to raise awareness and funds for a number of causes, commissioning a Garbage brand ed lipgloss online, with all proceeds from the sales split between NHS Grampian|Grampian Children's Cancer Research and cancer treatment institutions at Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital in Scotland and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York .

In 2003, the M•A•C AIDS Fund linked with the Elton John AIDS Foundation to produce the White Bedroom campaign, where both Elton John and Manson recorded Public Service Announcement|PSA s promoting safe sex|condom use and stating facts on AIDS. By 2007, the combined six VIVAMAC campaigns had raised over $100 million U.S. dollars, and as a former ambassador Manson accepted a cheque for £51,000 on behalf of HIV charity Waverley Care from the M•A•C AIDS Fund on 10 April 2008 at Harvey Nichols Edinburgh store. Manson had become a patron of Waverley Care in October 2002 and previously hosted a fund raiser auction to raise funds for the charity in January 2004 which raised £45,000. A Fender Musical Instruments Corporation|Fender guitar owned by Manson raised £1,050, while other items auctioned included contributions sourced by Manson herself, from Elton John and Kylie Minogue .

Manson is also a keen lover of animals. In 2007, Manson fronted an international poster campaign for PETA|PETA Europe , holding the carcass of a fox under the headline "Here's the rest of your fur coat". Manson has also adopted a rescue dog , a Mixed-breed dog|terrier-mix named Veela, named after the Slavic fairies#Modern fiction|fictional beings from the Harry Potter books.

In 2008, Manson became involved with the Pablove Foundation, a charity founded by Dangerbird Records head Jeff Castelaz, whose son Pablo succumbed to cancer the following year. Funds raised for the Pablove Foundation directly supports the pediatric cancer community in and around Children's Hospital Los Angeles . Manson reformed Garbage to contribute an exclusive track, "Witness to Your Love", to a charity album for the Foundation; signed off a Pablove poster for auction on eBay ; Manson also hosted a fundraiser headlined by the Silversun Pickups , and performed acoustically on-stage at a second fundraiser with Butch Vig and Tom Gabel (for a rendition of "Witness...") and with Greg Kurstin (for a cover of Pablo's favourite song, David Bowie 's " Life on Mars? ").

In 2010, Shirley Manson donated two hand-decorated T-shirts to Binki Shapiro’s (of the band “ Little Joy ”) on-line charity auction “Crafts for a Cause” to help raise money for the earthquake victims of Haiti . The two T-shirts raised a total of $1522.00, which was donated to the Paul Haggis|Artists for Peace and Justice organisation.

Copyright Citations

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1. Garbage 2. Siouxsie and The Banshees 3. Angelfish 4. The Blue Nile

Alternative Music Artists

Shirley Manson

Biography

Life and career

Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie

Angelfish

Garbage

Personal life

Musical influence

Discography

Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie

Angelfish

Garbage

Featured appearances

Sampling

Other work

Acting

Charity work

References

External links

Copyright Citations