{"id":147611,"date":"2025-11-22T20:14:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T20:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/147611\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T20:14:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T20:14:13","slug":"he-was-our-older-brother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/147611\/","title":{"rendered":"he was our older brother"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where to even start with Mani? He was the music fanatic who had his absolute dream come true \u2014 twice. First, by shaping the Stone Roses\u2019 sound with his legendary bass and then, later on, once more with Primal Scream.<\/p>\n

People have more stories to tell of their shared adventures with Mani than of anyone else I know, often simply about enjoying a gig with him, or running into him unexpectedly and entering his amazing world for an hour or two. He was never without a smile, but he could carry a huge weight on his broad shoulders. <\/p>\n

People would say he never had a bad word to say about anyone \u2014 he saved any venom he had for an occasional rant about Margaret Thatcher, but that was about it. He was no pushover when it came to his craft \u2014 you don\u2019t get to be that brilliant a musician without a level of dedication and determination which is rare to find. But he was everyone\u2019s mate and he cared little for the decades-long loss of privacy that his brilliance entailed.<\/p>\n

We first met in 1989. I\u2019d gone to see the Stone Roses at the International in Manchester and the Charlatans were the opening act \u2014 my band, the Electric Crayons, weren\u2019t on the bill. But as you can maybe guess, this was quite an important moment in my life. Either I asked him for a light or he asked me, just outside the stage door. I knew who he was and he gave me so much of his time.<\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/p>\n

Tim Burgess and Mani<\/p>\n

COURTESY OF TIM BURGESS<\/p>\n

The next time we met, on Manchester\u2019s Market Street, Mani remembered me and we caught up. I told him I\u2019d heard the Charlatans were looking for a new singer. He was hugely enthusiastic and said it was my destiny and that I had to do it \u2014 he winked and said, \u2018Welcome to the brotherhood.\u2019 The rest, as they say, is history. <\/p>\n

When spending time with him, particularly in Manchester, you\u2019d get a snapshot of the public side of Mani. People would shout his name from passing cars, he would be stopped every few yards while walking through town. Music lovers of every age and type would stop to catch up with him. And he had time for every one of them. <\/p>\n

I looked up to him so much. He was a pathfinder for so many of us, like an older brother who had blazed a trail. He would tell stories of a life well lived, of going to raves, gigs and recordings. Never with braggadocio \u2014 always with humility. <\/p>\n

None of this even begins to touch on his absolute mastery and recalibration of what it meant to be a bass player. <\/p>\n

\u2022 Gary \u2018Mani\u2019 Mounfield obituary: Stone Roses bass player<\/a><\/p>\n

I have my own stories and memories that came to me on hearing the news of his death last week, and like others I find solace in the idea that Mani knew how to live life to the full. But at 63 it was a life lamentably cut short. <\/p>\n

Imelda was the love of his life and his constant companion in all of the turbulence [she died two years ago from cancer aged 52]. After her death he dedicated his life to bringing up their twin boys. He talked with the most amazing pride about his family and they kept his feet firmly on the ground. The fact that he was denied a final chapter of the happiness he craved and deserved is the biggest tragedy of all.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Stone Roses in 1990. Clockwise from top left: John Squire, Ian Brown, Reni and Mani<\/p>\n

MIKE PRIOR\/REDFERNS<\/p>\n

The memories of my time with him have come flooding back over the past couple of days. Fishing in Monmouth with him and Rob Collins (the original keyboard player for the Charlatans), using baked beans as bait; that endless laughter at our lack of success in catching anything. <\/p>\n

The album he was there to record was much delayed, and one day he drove to pick me up with the promise of \u201ca surprise in store\u201d \u2014 those words from Mani could bring equal amounts of excitement and trepidation. He was unpredictable in the most beautiful way.<\/p>\n

As I jumped in his car, he took out a cassette and for the next few hours, as we weaved through the country lanes, our soundtrack was his own copy of Second Coming \u2014 the album the world had been waiting for. I was hearing it a day after its completion. His beaming smile and pride were off the scale. <\/p>\n

It was only a few short years earlier that I had been watching the Stone Roses on stage as the world fell in love with them, something that was only a dream for me. But Mani helped us realise that this world was possible for people like us too.<\/p>\n

Back in November 1992 it was Mani who excitedly called to tell me about a new band he\u2019d heard of. He invited me to the Boardwalk in Manchester and together we both watched Oasis for the very first time. <\/p>\n

As legendary as he was, Mani encouraged new bands. During the long Stone Roses hiatus he actually played live with the Complete Stone Roses, one of many tribute bands. That was such a Mani thing to do.<\/p>\n

\"Portrait<\/p>\n

Squire, Mani, Brown and Reni reformed for two nights at Heaton Park in Manchester in 2012 at The Soho Hotel on October 18, 2011 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Dave J Hogan\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

DAVE J HOGAN\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

He was the consummate rock star: not many can elevate the bass to the level he did. But he was the star of any show \u2014 I saw him playing with Wayne Kramer, the lead guitarist of MC5, in New York and his tenure in Primal Scream, after joining them in 1996, gave him renewed enthusiasm for what he loved most: playing live, travelling the world, meeting new people.<\/p>\n

We DJed together a few times and he would talk endlessly about his favourite songs and what they meant to him. He never took anything for granted and I never heard him complain about any aspects of the work we did, despite living in a bunk on a bus for months on end, missing home and family while touring. A few have said it but he often came across as someone who had won a competition to be there, such was his singularly optimistic view of life. <\/p>\n

He was so loved. He will be missed by so many.<\/p>\n

Tim Burgess is the lead singer of the Charlatans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Where to even start with Mani? He was the music fanatic who had his absolute dream come true…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-147611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}