Shirley Manson

Shirley Ann Manson (born 26 August 1966) is a Scottish recording artist and actress, best known internationally as the lead singer of the alternative rock band Garbage. For much of her international career Manson commuted between her home city of Edinburgh to the United States to record with Garbage but now lives and works in Los Angeles. Manson gained media attention for her forthright style, rebellious attitude, and distinctive voice, which also won her fans throughout the world.. Shirley Anne Manson was born in 1966 to John Mitchell and Muriel Flora Manson (née MacKay) at the Queen Mary Maternity Home in Edinburgh. John Mitchell, a descendant from the fishing community of Northmavine, Shetland, was a university lecturer while Muriel was a big band singer, who had been adopted by a Lothian-based family at an early age (and took on the family name MacDonald). Shirley was named after an aunt who was herself named after Charlotte Brontë's novel Shirley. She was born with two years between both older sister Lindy-Jayne and younger sister Sarah, and was brought up in the Comely Bank and Stockbridge areas of the city. Manson attended Presbyterian church until the age of 12, where her father was also her Sunday School teacher.. Manson's first public performance was in 1970, at age four, with her older sister, in an amateur show held at the local Church Hill Theatre. Enrolled at Flora Stevenson Primary School, Manson received instruction in recorder, clarinet and fiddle, and learned ballet and piano from extramural classes at age seven. Manson was a member of Girlguiding UK throughout this period of her youth as a Brownie and a Guide, Manson attended the City of Edinburgh Music School, the music department of Broughton High. While at Broughton, Manson became an active member of its drama group, performing in amateur dramatic and musical performances such as The American Dream and The Wizard of Oz, while also singing with the Waverley Singers, a local girl choir. Other notable members of the drama group included Hilary MacLean, Rebecca Pigeon and Sara Stewart; while a production of Maurice the Minotaur (in which Manson played a prophet) during the 1981 Edinburgh Festival Fringe was awarded a Fringe First award by The Scotsman newspaper....
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