Things got tense at Good Things Festival in Melbourne on Friday (Dec 5), when Garbage singer Shirley Manson stopped the band’s set to unleash on a bloke holding a beach ball.

If you read that and are wondering how the hell a beach ball caused this much drama, same. In case you missed it, here’s the full story.

Mid-set, Manson locked eyes on a man in the crowd holding a small beach ball and let rip, calling him a “big f***** douchebag” and threatening she could get crew to “mess him up.” She also threw in lines like “f**k face” and “a small man with a small penis.” Fans quickly flocked to the video.

She then doubled down on Threads, saying she “makes no apologies whatsoever” and that she only joined a band because she “hates the beach.”

Thing is, the guy she blew up at wasn’t being a menace. 

His name is Ben O’Brien, known to his mates as Gig Pig, a massive Garbage fan and long-time festival regular. According to BLUNT Magazine, he picked up the little pink-and-white ball off the grass earlier in the day. He wasn’t tossing it around or blocking views. “You can actually feel the music... It vibrates," he said. "It's just a little thing I do to feel the music."

Ben said the first blast was almost funny, but then it “went dark, absolutely went dark.” He started scanning the crowd wondering if someone might take the threat literally. Fans nearby checked on him, and one woman offered her video of the whole thing.

Even after that, Ben stayed for the rest of the festival, politely asked the sound desk for Garbage’s setlist and got it. Then he went home and played the same 1996 bonus disc he bought as a teenager. 

He doesn’t want a pile-on: “If anyone brings a beach ball, just wave it like I did and have fun. Maybe write ‘Gig Pig’ on it.”

Cleary this guy is a genuine huge fan, and sounds like a great bloke.

Aussies have rallied behind him big time. Comments flooded Garbage’s socials. “Still not too late to apologise to the bloke you abused,” one wrote. “Justice for beach ball guy,” said another.

And the support hasn’t just been online. At Garbage’s following shows in Sydney and Brisbane, fans brought their own beach balls and chucked them around during the set. How good. 

Despite saying she “makes no apologies whatsoever,” Manson did attempt a half-apology in Brisbane. “If a beach ball brings you joy, for that I apologise,” she said, in a tone that was definitely leaning sarcastic. 

She then shifted into a separate message about Palestine: “I would really like it if the government apologised for what the f*ck is happening in Palestine.”

Many online felt the apology was more of a deflection, and pointed out she didn’t actually apologise to the lifelong fan she threatened in front of the whole crowd.

There were others who agreed with her, with one fan saying, "I love how she speaks out on issues. I disagree on some of them but that’s ok. She absolutely nailed it at the Sydney Good Things Festival."

At this point, the beach ball has somehow become the most unifying force in Australian rock fandom at the moment.

A lifelong Garbage fan copped it for no good reason, majority of the crowd backed him instantly and the internet is still debating it.