Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson has responded to fans who showed up with more “glorious beachballs” at another show in Australia.
Last week, Manson went on a rant after a fan threw beach balls in the crowd, during Melbourne’s Good Things Festival.
“Big guy with your big fucking beach ball,” she said at the time. “What a fucking douchebag. You’re a fucking middle-aged man in a fucking ridiculous hat, and you’re a fucking fuckface. I want, literally, to ask people to fucking punch you in the fucking face. But you know what? I’m a lady, so I won’t.” She also later defended her rant in a post on Threads.
During another show at the Brisbane edition of the festival, several fans responded by filling the crowd with beach balls of their own.
Responding to the crowd, Manson said: “I just have to address your glorious beach balls. They’re very impressive. They’re very impressive, and not only are they impressive, but they are very, very big.”
She then elaborated on her previous statements, while also redirecting attention to recent events in Gaza. adding: “So the only thing that kind of shocks me a little is that there’s been more fuss made about me offending beach balls than there has been made about 20,000 Palestinian kids who are now fucking under the dirt.
“So whilst the press are busy cooking up some kind of crazy antichrist rhetoric, I would just like to remind you all what actually is important in this life. And maybe a beach ball brings you joy. 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 fuck is happening in Palestine!”
It comes after Manson previously spoke out about the situation in Gaza earlier this year and said that artists should be allowed to use their platform to address the sitauation.
She told NME at the time: “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. If you’re not physically hurting anyone, you’re entitled to express it.
“What everyone is begging for is for the slaughter to stop and I don’t see how anyone could argue against that, but they accuse us of being terrorist supporters. None of us are. Did Kneecap exercise the best judgement in their choice of words? I see why some people freaked out, but we all know deep down that they’re decent young artists trying to affect change in some way and get us all to at least recognise that these people exist.
“While I sympathise with the fear and the historical suffering, the ancestral pain, I still don’t understand how anyone can see what’s going on in Gaza and not be crying out for it to stop. I just don’t understand it. There’s not a lot I can do, unfortunately.”
Since Hamas’ attack on Israeli citizens at the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023 – in which over 1,100 people were killed and 250 taken as hostages – multiple UN human-rights experts and UN bodies have stated that Israel’s military actions in Gaza amount to genocide, and the International Court of Justice has found claims of genocide plausible. An independent United Nations inquiry also found what it considered to be “a genocide in Gaza”.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, via Sky News, over 70,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023. Israel rejects accusations of genocide and denies committing any war crimes, maintaining that its operations are lawful acts of self-defence.
Meanwhile, Garbage are set to perform at next year’s Teenage Cancer Trust gigs curated by The Cure‘s Robert Smith with Placebo. Other acts on the bill include Wolf Alice, Manic Street Preachers, Chvrches, My Bloody Valentine. Tickets go on sale from 9am on Friday December 12 and will be available here.
