Shirley Manson insists it’s “long overdue” that the new James Bond has “a different colour of skin”, regardless of gender, after 60 years of the movie icon being a white male.
The Garbage singer, 56, is one of a select few to have sung a Bond theme tune – 1999’s The World is Not Enough.
With sixth Bond actor Daniel Craig bowing out in No Time to Die, the race is on to cast the role, with the likes of Henry Cavill, Tom Hardy and Scot Sam Heughan in the mix.
While Idris Elba has been ruled out, Rege-Jean Page is in contention.
Edinburgh’s Shirley, who at the start of the month was alongside other Bond greats like Dame Shirley Bassey and Lulu at the Sound of 007 in Concert, reckoned it was time for a change.
She said: “We are all in agreement it’s time for a different colour of skin.
“No matter whether it’s male or female, I think it would be exciting to have a different representation in the figurehead of Bond.
“I think that would be a thrill and something that’s long overdue.
“I really hope they get it right. They certainly got it right with Daniel Craig.”
Shirley admitted performing at The Sound of 007 in London earlier this month was one of the best nights of her life.
It was the first time she’d sung with an orchestra and the first time she’d met other Bond singers like Dame Shirley, who sang Goldfinger, Diamonds are Forever and Moonraker, and fellow Scot Lulu, who performed The Man with the Golden Gun.
Shirley said: “For me to be able to sing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was literally one of the best, most uplifting, inspiring experiences of my life.
“I was a wee bit nervous at the beginning. I’ve never sung with an orchestra before and I think I was overly excited. I felt a bit like a rocket ship. The adrenaline was really coursing through my veins that night.
“Garbage have done so many things in our career and, from the outside, it often looks glamorous but actually it’s fraught and full of unpleasantness. But this experience was spectacular. There were no egos in the mix.
“I’d never met Dame Shirley or Lulu before. It felt very proud and moving.
“They are both British legends.
“You feel that when you are in the room with them. They are carrying all that love that our grandparents and parents and we as children bestowed upon them. So to be in their company is thrilling.”
Dame Shirley is the only singer to have performed more than one Bond theme. And our Shirley is up for teaming up with her for her fourth.
She laughed: “A Shirley duet. Are you kidding? That would be insanely amazing.
“When Dame Shirley opened the show with Diamonds are Forever, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”
Shirley spoke to the Record via Zoom from her home in Los Angeles, which she shares with her second husband, sound engineer Billy Bush.
She’s promoting Garbage’s third hits album, Anthology, an incredible legacy for a band formed 30 years ago next year.
Nirvana producer and drummer Butch Vig and guitarists Duke Erikson and Steve Marker formed the band in 1993 but it wasn’t until they saw Shirley and her post-Goodbye Mr Mackenzie band Anglefish in 1995 that Garbage truly began, releasing debut single Vow in 1995.
And it’s been her groundbreaking lyrics that have renewed their fandom as Shirley gave a platform to gender fluidity and mental health decades before they became mainstream.
Shirley, who was given the NME Icon Award in 2018, doesn’t cast herself as some kind of prophet, however.
She said: “What has worked in my favour as a writer of lyrics is that I’m willing to talk about things that may make other people a bit uncomfortable.
“When you talk about things that make people uncomfortable, sooner or later these topics make their way into the mainstream and become things that everyone learns to speak about more comfortably.
“We talked about trans people and LGBTQ rights, climate change and black lives matter – topics that people still feel a bit shy about addressing. That’s slowly changing.
“Taboos in general tend to be things that really do need to be examined and do need to be talked about. Sooner or later they have their moment and you look prophetic.”
The current debate between feminists and those wanting trans right is an interesting topic for someone who is a supporter of both.
She said: “Trans rights is a subject very close to my heart. A subject I feel very strongly about and I want to protect trans right.
“I don’t think anyone else is in danger if they are given full accord as human beings to live their lives the way they choose to.”
Garbage released their most political album, No Gods No Masters, last year.
They doubted it would even chart given that it was about misogyny and racism but it reached No5 in the UK charts – their best position since 2005’s Bleed Like Me, which hit No4. Shirley said: “We were blown away by the response we got in the UK for our last record.”
Shirley added: “I still see myself as a Scot. This is my homeland and, so, whenever things go well in the UK, I have to confess I’m very pleased.”
The songs were inspired by the movement in South America when “women took to the streets and stood outside their governmental buildings and thrust their fists in the air and demanded change”.
Of course, since then, America has been gripped by anti-abortion legislation, while in Iran, women are leading an anti-hijab protest.
Shirley said: “We definitely noticed a change after No Gods No Masters, because we were told by a lot of young fans they appreciated us talking about things they felt were underrepresented.
“There’s a real movement against women around the globe and we talked about that on our last record and I think a lot of young women really appreciated that.”
The band will be going back into the studio to begin work on their eighth album after they play the Hollywood Bowl on October 22 for suicide prevention, with the likes of Alanis Morissette and Weezer.
Shirley gets back to Edinburgh to see her dad as regularly as she can.
She said: “I love Edinburgh dearly.
“It always feels like coming home when I go back to Scotland.”
Garbage’s Anthology is out on October 28.
