I was hit hard last week with the sad passing of the legendary Stone Roses bassist Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield, aged 63. I was someone who grew up as a teenager in the 1990s, and felt part of the wild optimism of the Manchester music scene. His death somehow feels like an end of a chapter for so many of us who grew up in the rave scene era, where his music with the Stone Roses crossed the boundaries between Indie and dance music.
The news was broken by his brother
The sad news was broken on Facebook by Mani’s brother Greg who wrote:
IT IS WITH THE HEAVIEST OF HEARTS THAT I HAVE TO ANNOUNCE THE SAD PASSING OF MY BROTHER GARY MANI MOUNFIELD. RIP RKID.
He shared the post with a photo of Mani he described as “Reunited with his beautiful wife Imelda”.
Indeed this is made even more sad by Mani’s last social media post on Instagram, where he was looking forward to his talking tour but wouldn’t be slagging off band mates, saying:
I think I’m embarking on what could be my final road trip…Getting too old now…Anyway, there’s a lot to go at…Anybody wanting to hear slaggings off of bandmates…or titbits of dirt, conjecture & gossip…I’m not that guy…I will be giving my skewed vision of my own life, I never did, and would never rat on my compadres…hope you come out and say hello !!!.
His excitement was emphasised by his friend and DJ, Dave Sweetmore, who wrote on social media:
Absolutely gutted. I spoke to Mani on Monday, he was unbelievably excited for the ‘Evening with’ tour we had just announced, with more dates around the world already in his mind.
Confession time of a very old teenager…
Now for a quick confession, I was 14 when their debut album came out. I was big into music having started buying records at just five years old, but at the time I was into Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground and Lou Reed, and the other Stones, the Rolling Stones. But it certainly was part of that era for me, just not playing on my tape deck, but at parties with mates who, like me, were all really into their music. There was always a bit of a fight to control the airways with each of us coming from different angles.
Perhaps ironically, the Stone Roses actually had the audacity and Manchester swagger to turn down supporting the Rolling Stones in their early years, and indeed, Terry Wogan. Apparently they declined to play unless they actually got an interview, the rumour being this was because they wanted to remove his wig. But given they didn’t get that gig we will never know if Terry wore a wig. Were we robbed of a wig reveal opportunity on the then arguably biggest TV chat show?
But this line from Ian Brown, reportedly stating about the Rolling Stones “They should be bloody supporting us.” sums up their brilliant Manchester swagger, although later their manager, Gareth Evans, said they fabricated the rumour as a publicity stunt.
Writing this article I came across a few things of interest. Firstly, Fools Gold was never on the album’s UK release the first time around, but was released as a double A side instead. It only made the album on its 2009 reissue in the UK.
Now I am sure all Stones fans will know this, but I didn’t, so I will share it in case you didn’t either.
The colours of their album sleeve are a reference to the French flag. And the lemons refer to a tale Ian Brown was told, whilst back packing through Europe, by an old Parisian revolutionary. He explained that in the 1968 protests, with tear gas raining down from the skies, the revolutionaries found that sucking a lemon would take away the sting. Apparently Brown always kept one at hand in case revolution started. And this idea translated to the John Squire Jackson Pollock inspired first album cover.
Influence and legacy
Now I am putting my teenage hat back on and using that as a vantage point. It wasn’t just about the songs, it was about belonging to something that was much bigger. One of the reasons I chose to study at Manchester University, although I was brought up in the South, is that my family are all from the areas surrounding Manchester, so that fact, and the pull of the Manchester scene made it my choice of university in 1995. Just a short walk through the streets of Manchester was enough for me to make up my mind. Oh, and like Mani, I am a huge Manchester United fan.
Manchester United posted this on Thursday 20 November::
But back to the swagger, back then there was no social media etc. this was about belonging to something bigger. Mani and the Stone Roses created the sound track to so many (and no doubt more to come) late nights and warehouse gigs back then, and evenings in pubs and clubs up and down the country.
How it all started
Their swagger as Mani talks about it:
People used to say, ‘God, these arrogant bunch of beat. But we were just 100% self-confident, because we knew the power of what we had in our hands, and those songs” no doubt influenced the next generation of bands such as Blur, the Verve and of course Oasis and countless Oasis clones. But how did it all start, what influenced them?
Talking on a podcast with Rockonteurs with Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt But, Mani describes how he knew this was for him from a very young age:
Then it gravitated into the punk thing, that’s where schools shit, I’m not going to do anything with it, this is what I want to do. It’s from watching The Clash, The Pistols, The Buzzcocks.
He then talks of how he first met Ian Brown:
The story of how I first met Ian Brown, my scooter gang in North Manchester was having trouble with these National Front skinheads, right, we asked Ian Brown’s South Manchester gang to come up and go and help us, basically to weigh ‘em in. And we first met basically chinning these skin heads, So it’s an anti-fascist vibe.
He then goes on and says he didn’t join the first time around since he was back packing in Europe, and sleeping on beaches, but always felt like he would join at some point. He then goes on to explain how he joined the Roses:
At the time, I was doing stage hand work at the Opera House, Palace Theatre in Manchester, you know running on with scenery for shows, it was ace, I only had to work three hours a day, I’m a right lazy sod. Somebody bumped into John and Ian going to A1 music to put an ad up for a bass player wanted. It was Clint Boon I think, from the Inspirals and he said get Mani in. Next thing I am getting the call. My days of working were finished [followed by a laugh].
But what is perhaps the saddest thing about this interview, which is well worth a listen, is how they had a second album in the making. If it were not for the legal case with Silvertown records, what could have been?
As Mani says of that time:
All that momentum that you have created over the last three or four years, that has gone, man.
The Second Coming
My love and appreciation of the Stone Roses actually came with the Second Coming, released in 1994 when I was at college. I got a copy from a mate, and my love was instant. Indeed, and this is controversial, in many ways it’s my favourite of their albums. Not that it is the best, but for me it takes me back to another place. Sometimes your first love might not be your best, but it is just that, your first love. I never got to see the Roses play, they were due to play at my first Glastonbury in 1995 but had to cancel due to guitarist John Squire having a mountain bike accident, out in Marin Country (where the birth of the mountain biking happened btw).However disappointed I was that the Stones didn’t play that year, what I did see was Pulp play their infamous set as they replaced the Stone Roses. But for me that year, being that young was all about Portishead, who played to a really small but packed tent in the middle of the afternoon. Evan Dando played prior but was very late on stage, and was now taking up the Portishead slot. I have seen a lot of gigs and a lot of Glastonbury sets, but I have never seen a crowd turn on someone like that, Dando didn’t go down well. But I think perhaps what is interesting is how I knew, like everyone else, to go there? There was no internet, it was all word of mouth about Portishead. But I digress.
Mani doesn’t speak well of that second album:
Mancunians are very, very terrible at pretending, hearts on sleeves kind of guys. It led to the butting of heads…We got the album out, I think it got panned a little bit, we were expecting something else, but we wanted to show we could play a bit better. There was a little bit of a Led Zeppelin infatuation going on with John. But it showcased his talents, how he’d learned to play better.
People were very quick to judge that album then, but now people are saying ‘you know what, it’s got good stuff on there you know’. There’s a couple of howlers I still can’t listen to till this day …My father died during that time, and my head fell off, and I was all over the place, when you don’t have that love in you, it’s hard to record. Faking it, you can’t fake it. You can’t fake the funk.
After Squire’s recovery they would go on to play their remaining tour commitments at the end of 1995. In April 1996, John Squire left the Roses, saying that it was “the inevitable conclusion to the gradual social and musical separation that we have undergone in the past few years.”
Squire would go on to form the Seahorses, Ian Brown would forge a highly successful solo career whilst Mani would go and join Bobby Gillespie’s Primal Scream, who he played with for 15 years. The Stone Roses reformed in 2011, releasing two singles, but no album would emerge before they disbanded once more in 2017, as old tensions resurfaced.
How it started with Primal Scream
In an interview Mani said:
It has turned into the most dysfunctional family. We should have put it down before we did. But I had a sense of loyalty and stayed with Ian.
On the last Roses tour we played at Brighton Centre and we had a day off after, so we stayed over, and we were in the pub around the back, and Bobby Gillespie and his then girlfriend went walking past with bags of shopping from Safeways, or wherever they had been. And we ended up kidnapping them onto our tour bus to Newport, and on that bus ride is where me and Bobby had the chat, where I said ‘look it’s going tits up here’ and he went ‘come and join the scream.
Tributes poured in
Charlatans’ front man, Tim Burgess, reshared a photo that he had shared the week before, on Mani’s 63rd birthday.
Echo and the Bunnymen (Ian McCulloch) posted a tribute on X saying:
I’m absolutely gutted to hear the news about Mani, who I have always loved and always will love, deeply and forever. Like a brother. I am in shock to be honest. Please tell me I’m just having a bad, bad dream. My thoughts and feelings and Manilove to all of his family. from me Mac Bunnyman Xxx
Fellow Manchester legend Peter Hook of Joy Division and New Order posted:
Oh God. Mani…words just fail me this time, they really do. I cannot believe it. Sending all my love to his family. This is so sad. RIP mate. Love Hooky. X
Stone’s drummer Alan ‘Reni’ Wren said:
RIP our wonderful brother Mani. The greatest bass player and friend we could ever have wished for.
Ian Brown simply wrote:
REST IN PEACE MANi X
The Final Coming
That time will never come again, that amazing 1989 debut, which combined a melting pot of influences across indie, punk, funk and reggae. Such gems as ‘I Wanna Be Adored’, ‘She Bangs The Drums’ and ‘I Am The Resurrection’, delivered with a swagger not seen before, and all underpinned by Mani’s pounding basslines.
No wonder it was named Observer’s greatest album of all time in 2004, and the same by the NME (New Musical Express) two years later.
To Mani: thanks for the music, the heartbeat of a generation, some might say the hope, you helped put Manchester on the map and changed everything.
Mani leaves behind twin sons and countless fans. I was so lucky to be part of it, we will miss those bass lines, those grooves that defined a generation, Rest in peace Mani.
At their final ever gig at Glasgow’s Hampden Park, Brown told the crowd:
Don’t be sad that it’s over, be happy that it happened.
