Shirley Manson addresses crowd with message on the state of the music industry: “This is an alarm call”
During the most recent leg of their ‘Happy Endings’ tour, Shirley Manson of the American rock band Garbage addressed fans at the Mission Ballroom in Denver with a call to arms to ensure that they protect the music industry at all costs.
Having previously announced that this would be the band’s last tour due to the “thievery of the record industry”, Garbage opened their tour at The Anthem in Washington DC with a similar speech that addressed how difficult it is to exist as working musicians in the modern era, and delivered an equally powerful message at their show on October 12th.
In her speech, the Scottish-born singer said that “it has become entirely unsustainable for us to come and tour anywhere except the coasts,” and while adding that the band have enjoyed a 30-year career, she maintained that it is “imperative that we all start to understand what exactly is going on in the music industry.”
Producing statistics about how the average musician makes only $12 per month from Spotify streams, and how there are no unions in place to ensure that young artists get paid fairly over label executives and vendors like Ticketmaster, her speech was met with rapturous cheers and applause from the audience.
She continued: “This is not a pity party for us, this is an alarm call for all the young generations of musicians who are in our wake, and who we feel duty-bound to speak up for because there’s nobody speaking up for them.”
“I bring this up tonight because you are the ones who will lose out on a generation of esoteric, risk-taking, creative, adventurous weirdos, rebels, agitators and provocateurs,” she added. “You’re gonna get fucking white bread.”
Garbage’s tour continues for a further 12 dates before concluding in November at the Hollywood Palladium. The band released their most recent album, Let All That We Imagine Be the Light, in May 2025 to critical acclaim.
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