Stone Roses and Primal Scream bassist Gary “Mani” Mounfield has died at the age of 63, according to a social media post from his brother. No cause was provided.
Mounfield’s bass work helped propel the Stone Roses out of the post-Smiths-era Manchester, England, several years before the Britpop revolution made superstars out of Oasis, Blur and the Verve. The group’s 1989 self-titled debut is considered an indie rock classic, while its long-delayed follow-up, 1994’s Second Coming, spawned the hits “Love Spreads” and “Ten Storey Love Song.”
Mounfield joined Primal Scream in 1996 once the Stone Roses dissolved and remained with them for 15 years. He was back on bass when the Roses reunited in 2012 and played more than 50 shows, including at the Coachella festival. A shorter reunion followed in 2016, with the group’s final gig coming June 24, 2017, in Glasgow.
Mounfield later formed the short-lived supergroup Freebass with fellow six-string slappers Andy Rourke of the Smiths and Peter Hook of Joy Division and New Order. He nodded to his Manchester roots during a cameo in the 2002 film 24 Hour Party People, which dramatized the city’s evolution as a music hotbed.
Just last week, Mounfield announced plans for an extensive U.K. speaking tour about his time in the Roses and Primal Scream, which was to begin Sept. 16 in Leamington Spa. His wife, Imelda, passed away in 2023 from cancer. The couple had twin boys in 2013.
“I’m absolutely gutted to hear the news about Mani, who I have always loved and always will love, deeply and forever,” wrote Echo & the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch on X. “Like a brother. I am in shock to be honest. Please tell me I’m just having a bad, bad dream.”
“In total shock and absolutely devastated,” wrote Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, calling Mounfield “my hero.” “Absolutely gutted,” wrote U.K. DJ Dave Sweetmore, who said he’d just spoken to Mounfield on Monday and that they were planning to start working on his autobiography next month. “He was genuinely one of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet.”
