Memorable Moments
A look back at two memorable moments from Garbage shows over the years
Roskilde Festival, Roskilde, Denmark - 30 June 2002
This is perhaps one of the most infamous shows. Rumours of a video have been circulating for years; unfortunately, (at least for me), it has remained elusive. An audio recording of the show floated around on various torrent websites back in the day - these days, your best bet is to ask around on a Facebook group.
What makes this show so infamous? Whisky. Shirley’s struggles with her voice during the Beautiful Garbage tour were well documented and this show fell right at a time when she was suffering the most. In an attempt to preserve her voice during the show, she used whisky, with hilarious results. Songs stop and start, and change in the middle, and halfway through the show Shirley launches into an impromptu cover of Kylie Minogue’s smash hit “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” (despite not knowing the lyrics!).
Here’s what the band said in the Studio Diaries (published in full on the Garbage Message Board:
Roskilde was unbelievably good fun. My voice totally crapped out on me again about two songs into the set but the crowd were so up for having a great time that they didn't seem to mind in the slightest that I half-spoke all the vocals for the duration of the set. As a result of the rumbunctious crowd and due in no small part to the amount of whisky I consumed throughout the show, the set was loose and chaotic and totally crazy. Sometimes I find that taking a slug of whisky at times of vocal crisis can really help lube the vocal chords but this time it merely served as a manner in which to get completely and utterly inebriated. Mercifully the crowd were laughing their arses off cause I think they realised that I was wangdoodle plastered and didn't really give a toss one way or another whether things were perfect so neither did they!!!!
This is one of my favourite shows, so much so that I once wrote a poem about it, which I published on Facebook. Shirley liked it so much she reposted it on the band’s official page:
The set list
Credit to Garbage Discobox:
Push It
Temptation Waits
Androgyny
I Think I’m Paranoid
Special
Cup of Coffee
Only Happy When It Rains
When I Grow Up
Hammering In My Head
Can’t Get You Out Of My Head
Milk
Stupid Girl
Cherry Lips
Vow
Opening of the Scottish Parliament - July 1, 1999
In 1999, as part of the worldwide tour supporting Version 2.0, Garbage were invited to headline a gig celebrating the first national parliament of Scotland in nearly 300 years. The show wrapped up a full day of celebrations and was set amidst the magnificent backdrop of Edinburgh Castle. In the Road Reports written on the official website at the time, the band described the invitation as “an enormous honour for us. It’s not often that a band gets to participate in a historical occasion of such magnitude.”
For Shirley, an Edinburgh native, the show held special significance. In an interview with journalist Vicky Spavin of the Sunday Times shortly before the gig, she recalled stamping her feet on the ground with excitement when the band’s agent informed her of the invitation. At one point during the show, she draped herself in the Scottish flag before proudly declaring to the crowd, “This is my city”.
Reflecting 25 years later in an interview with Louder Sound’s Niall Doherty, Shirley described the performance as the proudest moment of her career—one she would never forget, even if she were to “get really senile”:
As soon as Manson cast her mind back to the day, it all came flooding out. “It was a dreamy moment,” explained the Edinburgh-born dynamo. “It was such a beautiful summer’s night and I had pink hair and my band was doing really well and my mum was there, my mum was still alive. It was very magical for me and to get the honour of my city, to be blessed by their respect, it was delicious.”
Reviewing the show, TimeOut’s Miles Fielder noted the band “had difficulty containing their pleasure” at being present for such an iconic moment in Scottish history. The band “ripped” into their set with “not a little polish”, and the show climaxed during “Only Happy When It Rains” when bazookas mounted above the crowd poured shiny plastic mirrorball squares down on the crowd. Notably, Fielder remarked that the gig would be remembered less as “The Garden Party” (its official name) and more as a Garbage show.
The set list
As recorded by the Garbage Base:
Temptation Waits
Not My Idea
I Think I’m Paranoid
Special
Queer
Hammering In My Head
Medication
John Anderson (cover of a Robert Burns song)*
Don’t Let Me Down (cover of The Beatles song)*
Stupid Girl
Vow
Milk
Sleep Together
Push It
Only Happy When It Rains
You Look So Fine
Encore
Supervixen
The Trick Is To Keep Breathing
When I Grow Up
*exclusive to this show