Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield, the influential bassist known for his pivotal role in The Stone Roses and later Primal Scream, has died aged 63. The news, confirmed today, marks the loss of a key figure in British indie music and a celebrated personality known for his distinctive style and grounded outlook.
Mounfield rose to prominence as a founding member of The Stone Roses in the late 1980s, contributing to the band’s iconic sound and image during the Madchester era. He provided the bedrock for hits like “She Bangs the Drums” and “I Wanna Be Adored,” helping to define a generation.
The band’s trajectory included a landmark but ultimately troubled performance at Spike Island in Widnes in 1990, playing to 27,000 people. Four years later, The Stone Roses released Second Coming, a record that faced a mixed reception. As John Harris wrote in NME at the time, “Anything other than a stone cold classic that sounded like it had been beamed in from another plane was going to be a jarring anticlimax.” Mounfield himself later felt the record was prematurely dismissed, stating in 2000, “I think they wanted something that we’d done before but we were never about to do another Herman’s Hermits album like the first one and be lovable mop-tops… We’d grown hair on our balls and learned to play a bit better and we were always going to do something a little bit different.”
The Stone Roses disbanded in 1996, after which Mounfield joined Primal Scream, revitalizing the group’s creative output. he remained with Primal Scream until the Stone Roses reformed between 2011 and 2017, during which time they released the new songs “All for One” and “Lovely Thing.” In a 2006 interview with Uncut magazine, mounfield contrasted the band dynamics, noting, ”The Primals is more of a democracy, whereas with the Stone Roses we were more looking over our shoulder seeing if Ian and John [Squire] were pleased. Because they were writing the songs and being touted as the Lennon-McCartney, Jagger-Richards kind of thing. For me now there’s a lot more freedom. Primal Scream are as good at bullshit detection as the Stone Roses ever were.”
Beyond Primal Scream and The Stone Roses, Mounfield was a member of the bassist supergroup Freebass, featuring Andy Rourke of The Smiths, Peter Hook of New Order, and singer Gary briggs of Haven.
A lifelong Manchester United supporter and keen angler, Mounfield is survived by his twin sons, Gene Clark and George Christopher, aged 12.Reflecting on his life in the same Uncut interview, he acknowledged his unlikely success, stating, “I never can see it as a failed mission – fucking hell, I’m from north Manchester, not the best part of town, and I’ve been around the world two or three times playing music. I’m still comfortable, I’ve got a house. I could have ended up dealing crack or stealing cars or robbing houses, like a lot of my friends.”
