Garbage singer Shirley meets 200 students in Paisley

Oct 29 2010 by Gavin McInally, Paisley Daily Express

A WORLD-FAMOUS singer visited students in Paisley to tell them the music business was “garbage” and they would need more than just talent to make the big time.

Shirley Manson, who fronts the band Garbage, met more than 200 music students at the town’s university and was quizzed for over two hours about her rise to super-stardom.

But the straight-talking singer, who is originally from Edinburgh, didn’t pull any punches as she revealed some truths about the glamorous music business.

Allan Dumbreck, senior music lecturer at The University of the West of Scotland, described the guest lecture as inspiring and admitted he was overwhelmed with the reaction from students.

He said: “Shirley was just on fire and it was one of those times when you could see the light bulbs switching on in students’ eyes as if they had finally realised what it takes to make it in this industry.

“She spent an hour answering questions and then another hour meeting students and talking about their bands and projects. It was really inspiring.

“It was also a wake-up call for some of the students as Shirley told them what the music business is really like and warned them about lawyers, labels who won’t promote bands properly and dodgy agents.

“In fact, she stopped a couple of times to say just how angry talking about that side of the business was making her.”

Alternative rock band Garbage are best known for their hits Only Happy When It Rains and Stupid Girl, and have a massive following in America.

Allan added: “Her advice was just believe in yourself, work hard, gig as much as possible and simply don’t listen to anyone who tells you that you can’t do it.

“She came from a fairly ordinary background and went to a fairly ordinary Scottish school and look what she has achieved. I think her advice struck a chord with everyone there.”

Allan, who is an old friend of Shirley’s from when they played together at Scottish gigs more than 25 years ago, asked the LA-based singer to appear as a guest lecturer when they met last year at a friend’s funeral.

And he was delighted that she managed to squeeze the special visit in to her packed schedule, which includes appearing as a liquid metal T-1001 Terminator in the sci-fi series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Allan explained: “This visit had been quite a long time coming and I’ve been going back and forth with Shirley’s management in America for months now, so it was great that she could fit the lecture in.

“And once she was finally here, she was just amazing.

“She also brought along her husband Billy Bush who not a lot of people knew about. It turned out he was a big-time music producer who had worked with the likes of Limp Bizkit, Green Day, Muse and Korn – so the music production students were firing questions at him too and getting advice.

“And when asked about her future plans she said that a new Garbage album could be on the cards, which hasn’t come out anywhere before so that was a real scoop in itself.

“It really was a special lecture from start to finish and one that may well help many students who want to be involved in music, find a way into the industry.”