"You better calm down": Watch a furious Shirley Manson drop 36 'f-bombs' in under 2 minutes while breaking up a fight at a Garbage show in Los Angeles

Shirley Manson onstage in LA, December 2023 — (Image credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Audacy)

Garbage vocalist Shirley Manson has never been one to self-censor when there's something on her mind. And so when a fight broke out during Garbage's set at KROQ's 'Almost Acoustic Christmas' show at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, on December 9, Manson let the combatants know exactly what she thought of them, in the strongest possible terms.

The band had just launched into Wolves, the third song of their scheduled 30-minute slot at the influential radio station's annual charity fund-raising concert, when Manson spotted an altercation in the crowd.

"Hey hey hey hey hey," she exclaimed. "Knock that fucking off right now..."

The furious singer then told her band to stop playing, while she addressed the situation.

"Knock this off, girls, knock this fucking shit off right the fuck now," she began. "What the fuck is wrong with you? Fuck this shit."

"Right, I don't know ladies, I don't know what the fucking story is... quite frankly, I don't care," she continued. "There's enough fucking bullshit in this world... Okay, I don’t care who it is. I want it to fucking stop. This is fucking bullshit. Do we not have enough fucking shit going on in the world without some fucking aggro at a fucking Christmas party? Fuck this. Fuck this. Knock it off, separate right the fuck now."

Manson then addressed the venue's security team, saying, "Security, I'd like you to get your fucking asses in there and find out what the fuck is going on. I don't want anyone to get hurt. Somebody has lost something, whether it’s a contact lens, glasses or a phone. Let's fucking sort it out."

Increasingly annoyed, Manson added, "Now, meanwhile, we’ve got 30 minutes on this stage and you're fucking eating into our time. So fucking get it sorted. I don't have fucking patience for this shit. I don't know what the pointing is, I don't care, I want the fucking shit to stop. I don't care who started it, I don't care why you fucking got into it, just fucking knock it off. I'm serious, if you fucking pull any fucking shit at our show you'll be fucking tossed out. So you've had one warning..."

Checking that everyone in the vicinity was unhurt, Manson then warned, "Aye, seriously, knock it off. I don't know what you three are fucking talking about... knock it off. I'm serious, one more fucking schism... and you bitch, you better fucking calm down too, or you're fucking horsed out. I'm serious, one more fucking second. Jesus fucking Christ guys. Jesus fucking Christ."

According to Entertainment Weekly, one of the parties involved later called into a KROQ show and admitted throwing a punch at a "rude drunk girl". Recalling Manson's response to the incident, she added, "I felt like I got yelled at by my mom."

Watch Manson speak her mind below:

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.