This past Friday (Dec. 5th), Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson slammed a member of the audience who brought a beach ball to the band’s set at Good Things music festival in Melbourne, Australia.
“Guy with your big f*cking beach ball,” she said, frustrated. “Ooh, I’m so scared of you. So thrilled by you. What a f*cking douchebag.”
Manson’s remarks quickly went viral, and during Garbage’s set during the Brisbane stop of the traveling festival on Sunday (Dec. 7th), fans responded by tossing dozens of beach balls into the audience.
Reacting to the many balls bouncing through the crowd, Manson said that she couldn’t believe her previous comments attracted more attention than the crisis in Palestine.
“I just have to address your glorious beach balls — they’re very impressive,” she said (via Rolling Stone AU/NZ). “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*cking under the dirt.”
“So whilst the Brits are busy cooking up some kind of crazy, like, Antichrist rhetoric, I would just like to remind you all what’s actually important in this life,” she continued. “Maybe a beach ball brings you joy, and for that I apologize. If I upset you about your blessed beach balls, I humbly apologize. However, I would really like it if the governments of the day apologized for what the f*ck is happening in Palestine.”
Following the original incident on December 5, Manson took to Threads to explain her stance on beach balls, saying she views them as part of a broader pattern of disrespect toward the music community.
“I make NO APOLOGIES whatsoever for getting annoyed at beachballs at shows,” she wrote at the time. “I joined a band because I HATED THE F*CKING BEACH. I joined a band because I wanted to listen to Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure and be dark and beautiful.”
“Continue listening to Spotify and toss your stupid beach balls around like you are ten years old,” Manson added. “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.”
