{"id":205305,"date":"2025-12-22T15:46:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T15:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/205305\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T15:46:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T15:46:15","slug":"few-have-done-so-much-for-this-city-ian-brown-pays-tribute-to-mani-at-funeral-as-he-joins-liam-gallagher-to-carry-coffin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/205305\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Few have done so much for this city\u2019 \u2013 Ian Brown pays tribute to \u2018Mani\u2019 at funeral as he joins Liam Gallagher to carry coffin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brown spoke at the service at Manchester Cathedral on Monday along with Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie before both men helped carry Mounfield\u2019s coffin from the church as fans packed the street outside.<\/p>\n

Brown and Gillespie were joined carrying the coffin by the other two members of The Stone Roses\u2019 classic line-up \u2013 John Squire and Alan \u201cReni\u201d Wren \u2013 as well as Oasis singer Liam Gallagher and Primal Scream guitarist Andrew Innes.<\/p>\n

\"Liam<\/p>\n

Liam Gallagher and his partner Debbie Gwyther arriving for the funeral service of former Stone Roses and Primal Scream bass player Gary Mounfield (Danny Lawson\/PA)<\/p>\n

Among the other mourners who packed the cathedral were music legend Paul Weller; footballers Sir David Beckham and Gary Neville; Bez from the Happy Mondays; and former New Order bassist Peter Hook.<\/p>\n

Brown told the service: \u201cOne thing we can all agree on is Mani was one of the greatest lads we ever met, one of the greatest men we ever knew. Lucky us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The singer said: \u201cMani was like a brother to me. A dream as a friend. A true musical comrade.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Flowers<\/p>\n

Flowers reading \u2018Mani\u2019 in the hearse as it arrives for the funeral service (Danny Lawson\/PA)<\/p>\n

rown told the mourners: \u201cWe all know Gaz lived his life laughing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd laughing was his number one pursuit \u2013 always looking for the next laugh, a non-stop laugh machine.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cMani\u2019s been in my corner whatever the situation, for 45 years \u2013 non-stop, unconditionally. Always a beautiful soul and spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mods<\/p>\n

Mods on scooters escort the cortege to the funeral service (Danny Lawson\/PA)<\/p>\n

Brown told the congregation how his friend had loved the same things all his life: \u201cHis family, his pals, fishing, football, (Manchester) United, music, Lambrettas, dancing, clobber, town, and all the usual gentlemanly pursuits.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cHe lived a full, a fulfilled and a blessed life, going round and round the world lifting people up with his bass guitar skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown said there had been a \u201ctsunami of love\u201d for Mounfield since his death last month, adding: \u201cHe loved everyone and everyone loves him\u201d, and that \u201che was the life and soul of wherever he was, making every room he was in brighter\u201d.<\/p>\n

He told mourners: \u201cMani wouldn\u2019t want us to be broken-hearted. But we all are.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we\u2019ll never fill the Mani-sized hole that we\u2019re left with.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a big loss, it\u2019s hard to find words. Thanks to God we shared our lives with Mani.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there were cheers in church when Brown said Mounfield loved Manchester more than anyone, and \u201cfew have done so much for this city\u201d, and also called for a 50ft, solid gold statue to be erected of the bassist.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

Paul Weller and Hannah Andrews arriving for the funeral service of former Stone Roses and Primal Scream bass player Gary Mounfield, who was known as Mani, at Manchester Cathedral, following his death at the age of 63. Peter Byrne\/PA Wire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brown spoke at the service at Manchester Cathedral on Monday along with Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-205305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}