Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Back in the ’90s, I used to listen to the American rock band Garbage. I vaguely remember enjoying their music. Fast forward 30 years, and they’ve been in the news recently. (Thank you to the viewer who sent this in.)
Actually, Scottish lead singer Shirley Manson has been in the news for using some pretty questionable language at a recent concert, Good Things 2025 in Melbourne. A guy in the audience was holding a beach ball, waving it around. Then she turned on him.
She said, “Big guy with your big f***ing beach ball! Ooh, I’m so scared of you, so thrilled by you! What a f***ing douchebag! F***ing dudes, wow. Oh my god, you’re so cool. It’s just so f***ing outrageously cool, I can’t get over it, wow. It’s disrespectful. And musicians have had enough. And we’re fed up of not getting f***ing paid properly and fed up of having to play for douchebags like you. You’re a f***ing middle-aged man in a f***ing ridiculous hat, and you're a f***ing f***face. And I want, literally, to ask people to f***ing punch you in the f***ing face. But you know what? I’m a lady, so I won’t. But truly, I would love to send my crew over to f***ing mess you up. But you know what? I won’t because I pity you because you’re a small man with a small [penis].” Or words to that effect.
Obviously, that language is completely inappropriate, particularly turning on her fans like that. According to the Good Things website, tickets cost around $270. So, this guy wasn’t just some random troublemaker; he was clearly a fan. Regarding the incident, I have a few comments:
Firstly, it’s not like the beach ball landed on stage. If it had hit the lead guitarist in the head or something, okay, maybe ask people nicely not to throw balls around. But this guy was only holding the ball.
Secondly, she called him middle-aged as some sort of insult, but she has to realise that a lot of her fans would be middle-aged by now.
Thirdly, she threatened violence: trying to get audience members to attack him, and also threatening to send her crew out. It turns out that, in a later interview, the guy admitted he was actually quite scared at the time. He said, “I felt hurt that one of my artists I’ve loved for over 25, 30 years had singled me out and made me feel very small and a bit afraid.”
Fourthly, she attacked him personally by commenting on the size of his genitalia.
Look, we all have bad days. We sometimes say something stupid. But quite frankly, the language she used was absolutely disgusting. It’s interesting that the likes of the ABC never picked up on this news. Imagine if the gender roles were reversed. Imagine if a male lead singer called out a female audience member and said:
“Little lady with your f***ing beach ball! Ooh, I’m so intimidated! You’re a f***ing middle-aged woman in a f***ing desperate outfit, and you’re a f***ing f***face! I want, literally, to ask people to f***ing drag you by the hair out of here! But you know what? I won’t because I pity you. You’re just a sad girl with small breasts.”
What a horrible thing to say, and that should be rightfully condemned. I’d imagine in this case, the ABC would be all over it:
“‘Drag you by the hair’: Lead singer promotes violence against women. In another example of public misogyny, lead singer Brock Savage of the band The Macho Axiom has exposed the toxic culture still pervasive in the music industry, sparking widespread condemnation for his violent and gendered attack.”
Tell me that’s not exactly how they’d report it. But yet, here we are with gender roles reversed: crickets. The ABC won’t even touch it. Hypocrites!
To be fair to Ms. Manson, she has allegedly apologised, although I’ll let you judge for yourself what kind of apology it was. Rolling Stone reported: “Garbage’s Shirley Manson Uses Beach Ball Apology to Raise Awareness of Palestine Humanitarian Crisis.”
The crowd in Brisbane had brought along a number of giant beach balls, perhaps as some sort of protest, or just typical Aussie larrikinism. She said, “I just have to address your glorious beach balls, they’re very impressive! And not only are they impressive, but they are very, very big. The only thing that kind of shocks me a little is there’s been more fuss made about me offending beach balls than there has about 20,000 Palestinian kids who are now f***ing under the dirt.”
To be fair, she didn’t offend beach balls; she abused a man in public who was holding a tiny little beach ball.
She continued: “Maybe a beach ball brings you joy and for that I apologise. If I upset you about your blessed beach balls, I humbly apologise. However, I would really like it if the governments of the day apologised for what the f*** is happening in Palestine.”
So obviously, on one hand, she doesn’t like violence against the Palestinian people, but on the other hand, she’s happy to publicly call for violence against one of her lifelong fans who doesn’t happen to be female. Hypocrite!
MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn
Back in the ’90s, I used to listen to the American rock band Garbage. I vaguely remember enjoying their music. Fast forward 30 years, and they’ve been in the news recently. (Thank you to the viewer who sent this in.)
Actually, Scottish lead singer Shirley Manson has been in the news for using some pretty questionable language at a recent concert, Good Things 2025 in Melbourne. A guy in the audience was holding a beach ball, waving it around. Then she turned on him.
She said, “Big guy with your big f***ing beach ball! Ooh, I’m so scared of you, so thrilled by you! What a f***ing douchebag! F***ing dudes, wow. Oh my god, you’re so cool. It’s just so f***ing outrageously cool, I can’t get over it, wow. It’s disrespectful. And musicians have had enough. And we’re fed up of not getting f***ing paid properly and fed up of having to play for douchebags like you. You’re a f***ing middle-aged man in a f***ing ridiculous hat, and you're a f***ing f***face. And I want, literally, to ask people to f***ing punch you in the f***ing face. But you know what? I’m a lady, so I won’t. But truly, I would love to send my crew over to f***ing mess you up. But you know what? I won’t because I pity you because you’re a small man with a small [penis].” Or words to that effect.
Obviously, that language is completely inappropriate, particularly turning on her fans like that. According to the Good Things website, tickets cost around $270. So, this guy wasn’t just some random troublemaker; he was clearly a fan. Regarding the incident, I have a few comments:
Firstly, it’s not like the beach ball landed on stage. If it had hit the lead guitarist in the head or something, okay, maybe ask people nicely not to throw balls around. But this guy was only holding the ball.
Secondly, she called him middle-aged as some sort of insult, but she has to realise that a lot of her fans would be middle-aged by now.
Thirdly, she threatened violence: trying to get audience members to attack him, and also threatening to send her crew out. It turns out that, in a later interview, the guy admitted he was actually quite scared at the time. He said, “I felt hurt that one of my artists I’ve loved for over 25, 30 years had singled me out and made me feel very small and a bit afraid.”
Fourthly, she attacked him personally by commenting on the size of his genitalia.
Look, we all have bad days. We sometimes say something stupid. But quite frankly, the language she used was absolutely disgusting. It’s interesting that the likes of the ABC never picked up on this news. Imagine if the gender roles were reversed. Imagine if a male lead singer called out a female audience member and said:
“Little lady with your f***ing beach ball! Ooh, I’m so intimidated! You’re a f***ing middle-aged woman in a f***ing desperate outfit, and you’re a f***ing f***face! I want, literally, to ask people to f***ing drag you by the hair out of here! But you know what? I won’t because I pity you. You’re just a sad girl with small breasts.”
What a horrible thing to say, and that should be rightfully condemned. I’d imagine in this case, the ABC would be all over it:
“‘Drag you by the hair’: Lead singer promotes violence against women. In another example of public misogyny, lead singer Brock Savage of the band The Macho Axiom has exposed the toxic culture still pervasive in the music industry, sparking widespread condemnation for his violent and gendered attack.”
Tell me that’s not exactly how they’d report it. But yet, here we are with gender roles reversed: crickets. The ABC won’t even touch it. Hypocrites!
To be fair to Ms. Manson, she has allegedly apologised, although I’ll let you judge for yourself what kind of apology it was. Rolling Stone reported: “Garbage’s Shirley Manson Uses Beach Ball Apology to Raise Awareness of Palestine Humanitarian Crisis.”
The crowd in Brisbane had brought along a number of giant beach balls, perhaps as some sort of protest, or just typical Aussie larrikinism. She said, “I just have to address your glorious beach balls, they’re very impressive! And not only are they impressive, but they are very, very big. The only thing that kind of shocks me a little is there’s been more fuss made about me offending beach balls than there has about 20,000 Palestinian kids who are now f***ing under the dirt.”
To be fair, she didn’t offend beach balls; she abused a man in public who was holding a tiny little beach ball.
She continued: “Maybe a beach ball brings you joy and for that I apologise. If I upset you about your blessed beach balls, I humbly apologise. However, I would really like it if the governments of the day apologised for what the f*** is happening in Palestine.”
So obviously, on one hand, she doesn’t like violence against the Palestinian people, but on the other hand, she’s happy to publicly call for violence against one of her lifelong fans who doesn’t happen to be female. Hypocrite!
MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn
