In retrospect, this could easily be the nightmare for a record company executive: three producer musos - average age 40.7 years - combined with a ginger, tomboyish Scottish singer from some minor goth band (Goodbye Mr MacKenzie, that is).
And as if that is not enough sweat, they have a ridiculous name. One can just foresee the venomous puns from the musical papers, critics having a field day trashing a band called Garbage.
Any hesitation and doubts, however, soon proved to be unnecessary. Instead of morphing into a pathetic group playing desperate grunge-rock, Garbage proved their worth by creating a prototype in pop music - a unique recipe of rock with dance sensibilities, a rock-side counterpart to Prodigy in the dance camp.
Since then, the combination of instrumentalists Butch Vig, Duke Erikson and Steve Marker, plus singer Shirley Manson, have swept all across the boards.
Their eponymous debut sold four million copies worldwide and every track released as a single was heavily rotated on both sides of the Atlantic, earning credibility from all musical papers concerned.
Nominations for the ever-conservative Grammys further enhanced their reputation.