Garbage singer Shirley Manson warns ‘expensive’ Australia may miss out on more big tours

Bed-bound and dosed to the eyeballs with pain medication, Shirley Manson wrote her way out of hell for her new Garbage album.

Shirley Manson confirms there are “plans afoot” for ‘90s industrial pop pioneers Garbage to return to Australia later this year for their first tour in almost a decade.

The rebel siren who has stalked the country’s biggest stages over the past three decades says the delay in returning down under to play to one their biggest fanbases in the world, isn’t for a lack of desire.

It’s a numbers’ game.

Manson reveals the band, which features famous producers and hitmakers Butch Vig, Duke Erikson and Steve Market, are offered the same fees to play in 2025 as they were paid in the late ‘90s.

As Garbage get ready to head out on a massive US tour in support of their eighth studio album Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, the alt-rock goddess says the explosion in costs from flights and accommodation to staging and freight is putting younger rock bands out of business.

Indie rockers Garbage say it’s expensive to tour Australia. Picture: Joseph Cultice

“There are plans afoot to come this year but it’s getting increasingly difficult for bands to come to Australia,” she says.

“It’s very expensive for us, flights, hotels, wages, everything, and the fees for a band like us, not always but sometimes, remain the same as what we were being paid in the ‘90s.

“I don’t think people fully understand how difficult it is for bands to survive and that is why we are seeing less and less bands because the expense of touring for a band just becomes impossible to sustain.

“We have managed to survive an industry that’s brutal by being really canny with the money; none of us live wildly, I drive a f---ing 10-year-old Prius.”

Manson has been to hell and back over the past couple of years. She underwent hip replacement surgery to fix the damage wrought by a stage fall she suffered in 2016. Last year her other hip broke and she went through the same operation and recovery process all over again.

Manson wrote songs while recovering from major surgery. Picture: Joseph Cultice

Dealing with her human frailty, and the sociopolitical flux of her beloved America, where the Scottish singer has lived for decades, tested her spirit.

Like all songwriters, when the brain fog of pain and medication lifted Manson set up a small recording studio in her bedroom and channelled her feelings into lyrics for the new record’s songs.

“It’s the first time I’ve sort of recorded my part of the bargain independently of the band; it’s my era of independence!” she says with pride.

“I was recovering from two major surgeries over the course of two years so I was bed bound and my whole life got sort of turned upside down and all my habits got just disrupted, which was actually in the end, really great both for me and the band.

“It just changed the dynamic completely, which after 30 years is a real gift because of course if you’re familiar with one another and familiar with your patterns of working, things can get very predictable.”

“Being in pain and having to learn to walk again was no picnic but I’m grateful for the upheaval in the end because it changed my thinking and it turned out there was a lot of silver linings to this misery.”

The 58-year-old sounds different on the songs. Maybe it was the painkillers, perhaps it was the pain but her already expansive, emotive voice has found bolder new colours.

Like on Sisyphus, where she channels her recovery – “This little body of mine is going to make things right” into a soaring electronic club track that is ripe for a cover version from her labelmate Kylie Minogue. The pair were both mentored by the late great Australian music mogul Michael Gudinski.

Michael Gudinski was one of Garbage’s biggest champions. Picture: Shirley Manson / Facebook

“Oh my darling Kylie, she would kill that track actually,” Manson says. “I have such a massive love for her.

“I really try to explore different parts of my voice, with every record that we make. And I really tried to push myself to not stick to what I know so if you hear any new colour in my voice after 30 years, that’s the greatest compliment you could possibly pay me.”

Manson has a lot of love for the new generation of female pop artists who share her passion for using their art and platform to speak out against injustice.

The singer has never shied from using her songs and her social media to protest, and has been buoyed by other women raising their voices from Lady Gaga to Chappell Roan.

Manson and her men have won rave reviews for their latest record. Picture: Supplied

“We are screaming about the same bullshit as we did in the ‘90s. I’m very excited, however, by the new generations of young artists. They really fill me with a lot of joy,” she says.

“Whether they know it or not, they’re coming from our school.

“And we’ve had a dearth of provocative and alternative voices for about 20 years with the advent of uber pop artists who are just ginormous and take up so much space and were well-behaved and sort of conservative.

“I’m not knocking pop, I love pop, so I love seeing these enormous pop stars now who are getting involved in trying to improve our communities and are being courageous, way more courageous than my generation.”

Let All That We Imagine Be The Light is out now.

Originally published as Garbage singer Shirley Manson warns ‘expensive’ Australia may miss out on more big tours