Shirley’s In-store appearance.
Shirley Manson has been talking to the Scotsman following her recent in-store appearance at Harvey Nichols (Edinburgh) where she presented a cheque for £51,000 to the Aids charity Waverley Care.
You can discuss this and see some photos from the event in our forum
You can read the article below.
BIG HEARTED: Shirley Manson was back home to hand over a cheque for £51,000 to Aids charity Waverley Care.
By SARAH HOWDEN
SHIRLEY MANSON doesn’t want to get personal. In fact, even before the interview has been set up, it’s been made clear that no probing questions will be allowed at all. None whatsoever. End of.
Interviewing celebrities is never easy. Certain questions make them uncomfortable. If you persevere, you run the risk of a brusque response or cutting the interview short. But talking to someone high-profile and media savvy with generic you’ve-heard-it-all-before answers isn’t going to work.
So the e-mail almost a week before our meeting from the PR stating that no personal questions were allowed was disappointing. Surely the gutsy, glamorous singer of Garbage hasn’t got all uptight since our last meeting just over a year ago when we discussed chippy sauce and getting drunk in the Grassmarket.
Strolling into Harvey Nichols 15 minutes before she’s due to accept a cheque for £51,000 on behalf of Scottish Aids charity Waverley Care from the MAC Viva Glam Aids fund, the diminutive 41-year-old, who grew up in Stockbridge, is all smiles. No entourage, no publicist – just Shirley, perusing the MAC counter, laughing and joking with staff. Uptight, she is not.
Even when the cameras of photographers and fans flash furiously as she presents the cheque, Shirley happily poses, poses, and poses again. And so when we finally meet up, and she mentions that her parents were delighted to have been included in the article I wrote about their daughter last year, I decide to take the plunge and ask outright about the significance of the ring on her engagement finger.
“I think I forgot to take that off,” she smiles, fingering the corker of a pear-shaped diamond ring. “No we’re not engaged, although I suppose, technically-speaking, we are. No wedding plans, though.”
Quickly, Shirley rephrases it. “No I’m not engaged. It’s just a ring I like wearing.” On your engagement finger, I question, teasingly. “It’s just a lovely ring I like wearing. Gifted to me, from someone.”
From a man? “What are you insinuating?” she roars with laughter. “Please don’t make me talk about it.”
I decided to leave it at that, but advised her to take the ring off before the photographers spot it too. Nothing in the world of celeb-dom is private anymore. And while it seems Shirley has managed to keep schtum about any relationship – no amount of Googling would reveal the name of her mystery man – there is an unrelenting appetite for information regarding celebrities’ personal lives.
“It’s ghastly,” she says of the paparazzi intrusion. “It’s really ugly, intrusive and not fair. Any average person would get protection. What’s the difference?
“There has been a shift. Celebrities carry a certain amount of power and it’s almost as if society are punishing them for this. When I look at what’s happening to Britney Spears I think it’s absolutely sickening. There is no compassion for a young girl in the throes of a mental illness. It’s not funny.”
She continues: “I think a person’s private life should always remain private – unless you are a politician. If you put yourself up as a moral compass for society to follow. But if you’re an artist or actor, I don’t think you’re signing up for that kind of intrusion.
“I’m not intensely private. I have a big mouth and I’m always shouting it off. But early on I realised it’s very dangerous to allow the press into my true private life. You can avoid it. Unfortunately some celebrities learn it too late.”
With an acclaimed career in the music industry spanning more than twenty years, sell-out shows around the world, double platinum-selling albums and industry awards galore, Shirley is somewhat of a veteran. So it came as no surprise that in 2007 she wanted a break to recharge those batteries.
“It’s actually been a busy time since we last met,” she says. “I’ve been writing and recording with a variety of different people – I’d rather not say who at this point – but a bunch of amazing people.
“I’ve been embattled with my record label who feel my music is a trifle too noir for their taste. When they told me ‘it’s very noir’, I was like ‘thank you’ and it wasn’t until I got home that I realised it wasn’t a compliment.
“When you’ve been in a band as long as I have, it’s very hard to find your own creative identity, so I’ve been busy. I’ve been travelling to Butang and India – on my own.
“I certainly think when you turn 40 you have to reinvent yourself to a certain degree. But I hate the phrase ‘finding yourself’.
“I have a really exciting job that’s allowed me to do amazing things, but after a while you do take it for granted. So that was part of the reason I took a break. You need time out to realise just how great you’ve got it.”
Despite being based in LA, Shirley comes home as often as possible, returning to her house in Joppa. “This is just a flying visit,” she explains. “My nephew was baptised on Sunday so I was doing all the family stuff. No work, just play. I go back on Saturday.”
“It’s a different world out there,” she says. “There’s a lot of amusing things. The other day I came out of the doctor’s office and there was Liz Taylor. Later I saw Cher and Ben Affleck on the street.”
It’s refreshing – and rare – that a global star is so down to earth, and her charity work is inspiring.
She says: “I got signed on to MAC cosmetics (as a spokesperson] about eight years ago, and they recently had a sale of $100 million of Viva Glam lipsticks, which they sell
to benefit charities. They were giving $100,000 to all their spokespeople to give to the
charity of their choice. So, being patron of Waverley Care, it was a natural choice.
“I have friends who are living with HIV and I’ve lost friends to Aids so it was something I felt a closeness too.”
As Shirley chats away, you can’t help but like the down-to-earth star. She admits to “bricking it” during a performance in New York in honour of Bono’s charity work.
“I wouldn’t change a damn thing,” she says of her life. “Some people are frightened to move forward in case they make the wrong choices, but there are no right and wrong choices.”
So, what’s next? “More writing, more record company fighting and that’s it. I’d like it out this year, but it depends who wins the battle of wills. Hopefully it will be me.”
All proceeds from MAC Viva Glam products go to help people affected by HIV/Aids. For further information, please visit the MAC counter at Harvey Nichols