Stone Roses’ Mani’s star-studded Manchester send-off

Family, friends and fans of Gary “Mani” Mounfield have turned out in force in Manchester to bid farewell to the much-loved bass player of The Stone Roses and Primal Scream.

Some of the biggest names of British 80s and 90s music, including his former bandmates Ian Brown and Bobby Gillespie, as well as Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, were all in attendance for the service at Manchester Cathedral.

Former Manchester United footballers Sir David Beckham and Gary Neville also attended.

Fans lined the streets as the funeral cortege went from the star’s home in Heaton Moor in Stockport to Manchester city centre.

The Stone Roses singer Brown led the tributes with a eulogy, saying his bandmate was like “a brother to me” and a “beautiful human being”.

Pausing briefly as he went into church, Brown said he was there to celebrate “what a beautiful human being that he was”.

Asked what Mounfield meant to him, the singer said: “Everything. He’s a brother to me, a musical comrade… a beautiful soul and spirit.”

He added that the bass player “was able to laugh his way through any darkness” and was “the life and soul of any room he was in”.

Brown, whose speech was played to the gathered masses outside – many of whom wearing bucket hats and Stone Roses T-shirts – was applauded after suggesting he should start a campaign for a lasting statue for his old bandmate.

“A fifty foot gold statue of Mani in the city,” he said.

Hundreds of fans gathered outside the cathedral and applauded as the cortege arrived, preceded by a guard of scooter riders as The Stone Roses track I Wanna Be Adored played on speakers.

Mounfield’s coffin – decorated with the classic paint splashed artwork from band’s first album – was carried into the cathedral as family and friends followed, with more applause from the crowd.

A Manchester United scarf also adorned his coffin, which was next to a wreath bearing the affectionate Mancunian term: “R kid”.

Mounfield’s bass playing was an integral part of The Stone Roses’ “baggy” sound – as heard on tracks like Fools Gold.

He joined another seminal group, Primal Scream, in 1996 and played with them for 15 years, before rejoining his old band for a series of reunion gigs.

Primal Scream frontman Gillespie followed Brown in giving his eulogy.

He recalled having first met Mani at the legendary Hacienda nightclub in Manchester.

“He made me feel a million dollars,” noted Gillespie. “He was like that with everyone.”

He added: “His enthusiasm and positivity was contagious.”

Other Manchester musicians at the service included Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs from Oasis, Mike Joyce from The Smiths and Peter Hook of New Order, who played in a band called Freebass with Mani and the late Andy Rourke.

Bez from the Happy Mondays was also in attendance at the funeral, which was a veritable Who’s Who of legendary music figures from the city.

Speaking to BBC Radio Manchester, music journalist John Robb described Mani as being “very much the heart and soul of Manchester”.

“He was something that’s very typically Mancunian, very typically northern as well, you know, beyond the borders of Manchester,” he said.

“The overarching trend is how many people say what a brilliant bloke he was to bump into.”

With Mani on bass, Brown on vocals, John Squire on guitar and Alan “Reni” Wren on drums, The Stone Roses were at the forefront of the “Madchester” indie scene of the late 1980s and early 90s, which peaked with a famous gig at Spike Island in Widnes.

They released their beloved eponymous debut album in 1989.

The LP featured such classic songs as I Wanna Be Adored, She Bangs The Drums and I Am The Resurrection, all underpinned by the grooves of Mani’s basslines.

It was named the greatest British album of all time by the Observer in 2004 and by the NME two years later.

Its harder-rocking follow-up Second Coming came out in 1994. Both albums reached the top five in the UK.

After the group disbanded in 1996, Mani joined Scottish rock band Primal Scream, first playing on their album Vanishing Point, released a year later, where his bass playing was a key part of krautrock-influenced lead single Kowalski.

Mounfield would go on to record four more albums with Primal Scream before leaving in 2011 to reform The Stone Roses.

The band released two further singles in 2016, but no full-length album followed and the group disbanded once more in 2017 after some old tensions resurfaced.

The Stone Roses played a number of UK gigs over 2016 and 2017 before their split, including a concert at Glasgow’s Hampden Park, which would end up being the classic line-up’s final concert.

Brown told the crowd: “Don’t be sad that it’s over, be happy that it happened.”

Mounfield died last month – aged 63 – peacefully in his sleep of “respiratory issues” linked to the long-standing lung condition, emphysema, coroners confirmed to the Manchester Evening News.

His wife Imelda died in November 2023, three years after she was diagnosed with bowel cancer. The couple have twin boys, who were born in 2013.

Only last month, the bassist attended the funeral of another Manchester icon, Ricky Hatton, at the same cathedral.

His death came after he announced an in-conversation tour of UK venues, which would have seen him recount his experiences and memories in The Stone Roses and Primal Scream from September next year.

Squire last week shared a new piece of artwork in honour of his friend; while another band associated with the city, Doves, paid their own tribute during a weekend gig at Manchester Apollo, calling Mani a “beautiful person”.