Garbage singer Shirley Manson has claimed that she wasn't speaking to real fans during an expletive filled rant on Twitter.

The singer originally tweeted that the crowd at the band's gig in Koln on Monday (November 26) was "subdued" and "cold", before a Twitter user complained that she was slagging off her fans.

She responded with "oh PULEASe BLOW ME" before later adding to another user: "f**king read what I wrote instead of having a knee jerk reaction + by the way I don't care a whit what you think of me so THERE."

However, she later said in a Twitter conversation that the complainers weren't real fans and suggested that they were Twitter trolls. Manson said:

"I love our fans + would NEVER dis them. Those 2 people were not fans. Trust me. I know. Sx."

The crowd seemed to pick up at their next gig in Berlin, with the band tweeting after their show: "Oh my GOD Berlin!!! Thankyou SO much! That was so SWEET of you to let us go off like that!!!! So SO generous. We are so lucky. TLF! Sx."