By Sylvia Simmons

The ultimate questions on life, sex and death.
This week: Shirley Manson

LAST MAN YOU FANTASISED ABOUT?

"I don't really fantasise about men, although it came pretty close when I went to see a film starring Brad Pitt recently. A friend of mine sent me a computerized picture of Brad Pitt's penis that she got off the internet - I don't know where she got it; dot-slash-@-Brad-Pitt's-penis, I suppose! It was quite impressive, pretty sizable and certainly nothing to be ashamed of - although I suppose it was blown up in the picture. Apart from that, no fantasies."

LAST TIME YOU GOT LEGLESS?

"I don't really get legless, as in fall-over drunk. I always keep my legs closed and I stay erect at all times. I know I have a bit of a reputation for being able to drink. Three nights ago in Copenhagen I went out with two of the women from the record company - a real girls' night out, lots of drinking, being horribly noisy and doing silly poses for the camera. But the last time I got to the serious vomit stage was last year when I went on an Edinburgh pub crawl with my friend Ruthie and we ended up, like all true friends, throwing up together in the same bowl."

LAST SHITTY THING YOU HAD TO DO FOR MONEY?

"Working in Miss Selfridge in Edinburgh, which I did for five years after I left school. *Five* years. And they didn't even promote me to manageress. In fact they *demoted* me, put me back in the stock room for being rude to customers. It was the most mindlessly boring job you could imagine. You get to the point when even looking at the clothes makes you want to scream. Yeah, you get a discount whenever you buy anything, but you never do buy anything because you've been looking at the bloody clothes all day, *every* day, so the last thing you want to do is look at them when you get off work."

LAST TIME YOU BROKE DOWN AND SAID, "WHAT THE F**K AM I DOING IN A ROCK BAND"?

"Never - at least not as far as breaking down and crying. Being in a rock band has never made me cry. After working in Miss Selfridge, there's no way it's going to reduce you to tears. But when you're touring, reality and real life as you know it cease to exist and you can't remember anything that happened more than five days ago. So I apologise for any crap answers to your questions - it's cos my mind is a total blank. I sit down and think, "What the f**k am I doing?", but I haven't come up with the answer yet."

LAST POLITICAL ACT YOU WERE INVOLVED IN?

"I joined the Labour party a few weeks ago. I just felt I wanted to do my bit to help them get into power next time. I know there's not much difference between the parties now, but I think it would be a whole lot better to have a government that, even if it's not left-wing, is more sympathetic to the left than the right. So I signed up."

LAST RECORD YOU BOUGHT?

"A cassette of Patti Smith's 'Horses', which like a good thrifty Scot I picked up for #1 [one pound]. What a bargain! Patti Smith has always been one of my heroes. She's brilliant and it really is an incredible album and just what I needed for my Walkman."

LAST TIME YOU SAW YOUR MUM OR DAD?

"We keep in touch a lot. Last time I saw them was on November 23 at the Forum in London. They came down just to see me play. It was the first time they'd ever seen me perform - I mean as a frontwoman. Before that they'd only ever seen me on keyboards or doing backing vocals. They didn't watch from the side of the stage, they wanted to be out at the front in the crowd. It was great - I looked down at one stage and saw my dad air-punching. They've been very supportive."

LAST TIME YOU LOST YOUR TEMPER?

"A man. A record company. Someone saying something highly inappropriate and really quite insulting. I only usually lose my temper when someone is being totally out of line or patronising."

LAST TIME A JOURNALIST ASKED YOU A QUESTION ABOUT WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE A WOMAN IN ROCK?

"This morning. We've been doing interviews all day and that's one question that always comes up. It's sad, isn't it? I don't have a stock reply I give them, because actually it is something I seriously think about a lot. But I'm still trying to come up with the answer."

LAST TIME YOU TOOK REVENGE ON SOMEONE?

"I never take revenge. I just don't believe that vengeance is good or useful. I believe if you do something wrong to someone, some day, somehow it comes back to you."

LAST PREMONITION?

"I have a lot of premonitions, actually: intuition, I suppose. They aren't the sort where a voice will tell me, 'Don't get on the tour bus this morning, something awful's going to happen'. They're more to do with people and feelings. Like a friend came on tour recently and I knew they were going to get upset about something, and when they did it was like deja-vu."

LAST TIME SOMEONE IN THE CROWD YELLED, 'SHOW US YOUR TITS'?

"Last night. It happens with amazing regularity. I usually say (puts on menacingly cute girlie American accent), 'Are you flirtin' with me?', which is what Juliette Lewis said in 'Natural Born Killers' right before all hell broke loose and the killin started. Are you flirtin' with me? Guns, blood, gore, death! And they don't pick up on it - they just think i'm being sweet!"

HOW LONG CAN YOU LAST?

"As long as I have to."