“She lives” – Garbage’s Shirley Manson recovering from surgery after cancelling tour dates 

8 October, 2024

Shirley Manson of Garbage performs in 2024

Garbage’s Shirley Manson has shared an update with fans, as she recovers from surgery.

While the exact nature of the surgery hasn’t been disclosed, the procedure comes after the Scottish singer told fans in August that Garbage would be axing the remaining 2024 shows due to an injury she suffered.

While details at the time remained sparse, the statement shared did say that the NME Icon Award-winner would “require surgery and rehabilitation to correct” her injury, and that the decision to cancel shows was not “taken lightly”.

She would later share another update, explaining that her health took a toll after embarking on a number of festival appearances throughout Europe in the summer. “I returned home from tour an absolute hot mess. So broken that my poor husband had to push me through Heathrow and LAX airports in a wheelchair. I also had a dose of laryngitis and a massive cold sore on my lip,” she explained.

“I was freaking out that I had somehow managed to damage my vocal cords on top of everything else but yesterday I was scoped and everything is as it should be,” she added, sharing an image she had taken by the GP.”

Now, Manson has taken to social media once again, and told fans that she has undergone a successful surgical procedure, and is on the road to recovery.

“She lives,” she captioned an Instagram post last week, showing her laying in a hospital bed, hooked up to various equipment.

She then shared another update last night (October 7), revealing slightly more details about her health over recent months. “I’m choosing to remind myself, as I lie here trying to recover from major surgery, that there are still beautiful things in the world. Animals, flowers, oceans, trees,” she began. “I’m so grateful to all the people who have gone out of their way to love on me, take care of me, check in on me. I cling on to their kindness and their thoughtfulness and their care.”

“Mostly I have spent the week in bed. Mostly I have been doomscrolling. As you can imagine, like everyone else, I’m trying really hard not to lose my mind,” she continued, going on to call for a ceasefire to the Israel-Palestine conflict – exactly one year after more than a thousand Israelis were killed by Hamas forces at a music festival.

“A year down the line and we are still watching this punitive horror unfold,” she wrote. “We are all living in the same world. We all deserve a life of peace and happiness. No one will convince me otherwise. Where you have inequality and injustice there will be suffering. The Palestinian people deserve to be free. Israelis deserve to live free.”

While specific details about the type of surgery Manson underwent remain unknown, it has already been announced that the singer will be well enough to head back on the road in 2025.

This comes as Garbage announced details of a new tour at the end of last month, confirming that they’ll be joining L7 for some South American tour dates. These kick off on March 12 with a show in Bogotá, before continuing with more stops in Santiago, Buenos Aires, Rio De Janeiro and São Paulo. It ends with a stop in Curitiba, Brazil on March 23.

“We are absolutely ecstatic and honoured that our friends @l7theband will be joining us for our Brazilian dates! A lot of love and history under our collective bridge,” Garbage wrote, announcing the news. Find tickets here.

Just a few days later, the band also confirmed a surprise release of ‘copy/paste’, exclusively for Record Store Day Black Friday.

Available from November 29, the record consists of various covers Garbage have shared over the years, including tracks by Siouxie And The Banshees, U2, David Bowie, Ramones and more. Find more information here.

The upcoming release comes after the band dropped a reissue of their 2005 album ‘Bleed Like Me’ earlier this year, and also told NME about how their relationship with the LP has changed over time.

“To be frank, I never had a particularly good relationship with that record until relatively recently,” Manson told NME. “We released it at a time of immense strife within the band, and dwindling interest from our record label and the general public.”

“We were stuck without an A&R that was interested in us,” she added. “It was really stressful. They kept on pushing for us to work with people that we didn’t feel were the right fit. As a result of our resistance to that, they decided that we were being really difficult. It was at a time in the entertainment industry when people were much more pliable than we were.”

Garbage’s last album, ‘No Gods No Masters’ arrived in 2021, and later in the NME interview, Manson opened up about how the hugely positive response to the project has left her feeling inspired for its soon-to-be-announced follow-up.

“I was really delighted that ‘No Gods No Masters’ was received so well because we had no expectations whatsoever. Going into this next record, I feel a shift. I’m trying to dampen my outrage,” she explained.

“It’s a searchlight, this record. After scorching the earth, we’re coming out of a filthy cave with a searchlight. We’re looking for shards of life and humanity.”

While no further details about the project have been announced, Manson did tell NME that she predicted the writing and recording process would be completed by the end of May.

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