Peter Hook has looked back at his friendship and admiration for Gary “Mani” Mounfield, and explained how “from a bass-playing point of view, he was the best”.
The iconic bassist, who became a household name for his role in The Stone Roses and Primal Scream, died last Thursday (November 20), aged 63.
The announcement was first made by his brother Greg, and tributes have since come in from Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown, Primal Scream’s Simone Butler, Liam Gallagher, Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder and many more.
Now, New Order bassist, soloist and former Freebass bandmate, Peter Hook has shared a touching tribute to Mani too, and written a piece for The Guardian to share some of his favourite memories with the late musician.
He began by sharing how he first met Mani when he was asked by The Stone Roses’ manager to help them produce ‘Elephant Stone’, a track that featured on their self-titled album.
“Then as Manchester turned into Madchester I got to know them really well,” he shared, adding that the legendary Manchester band worked on demos in his Suite 16 studio, before deciding to scrap it.
“Then after our various bands stopped playing live we started Freebass, with three bass players: myself, Mani and Andy Rourke, who’d been in The Smiths,” Hook continued, sharing how the supergroup formed in 2005 and briefly led to tension between him and Mani.
“The band was ill-fated – too many chefs – and eventually we fell out badly after a row over a gig. Mani slagged me off but God bless him, the very next day he phoned me up and apologised. That was Mani,” he shared.
“Once we were no longer working together, we became friends and after that every day spent with him was a total pleasure,” Hook continued, going on to acknowledge how while Mani was known for his charismatic personality, he wasn’t “a clown or joker”, but rather “a man of the people [who was] very funny and very irreverent. But also had an intensity and didn’t suffer fools gladly.”
Saying how he admired the late bassist, Hook wrote: “He was very passionate about things he believed in… If he felt something was wrong, or there was some sort of injustice, he was very tenacious. Once you had Mani on your side, you were rocking. He was a fighter and never gave an inch but he was everybody’s friend and nobody had a bad word about him.”
“When he was on form, he was a wonderful soul,” he added, going on to share that he respected how “he never let anything beat him”.
“From a bass-playing point of view, he was the best. Everybody wanted to be him. Mani joining the Stone Roses made the difference. He was a groove artist and into groovy music,” Hook went on.
“I recently watched him playing [The Stone Roses’] ‘Fool’s Gold’ on Instagram and thought: ‘How is he playing that?’ Like Andy Rourke, Mani played very melodically – which I do, but Mani was much subtler. I always tried to compete with the guitar but Mani wove around it. That’s a great skill, but I didn’t care what he played. He could have banged the thing on the floor for all I care: he was Mani.”
Concluding, Hook shared how he also auditioned to be in Primal Scream, but lost the role to Mani – leading to the latter referring to himself as ‘Number One’ and Hook as ‘Number Two’.
“All Mani wanted to do was play and most of all he loved playing to people,” the op-ed read, going on to mention the In Conversation tour that Mani announced just days before his death. “He never stopped working and was so looking forward to the speaking tour he’d just announced. It’s heartbreaking that he’s gone before it started.
“The outpouring of grief and sadness when Mani died has been really quite remarkable. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it, for a pop star, certainly not for a long time. At the moment every Manchester legend is asking themselves ‘Will I get that when I die?’ But I can safely say that Mani will never be forgotten.”
Hook also paid respect to Mani while on stage over the weekend. While on the road as part of his Peter Hook And The Light tour, he made a nod to the nickname he was given by the fellow Mancunian bassist by writing “Mani No.1” on his back.
Following the news of Mani’s death, fans have been re-sharing a brilliant clip of him at the NME Awards in 2008, and both Oasis and Richard Ashcroft paid respects to him during a gig in Brazil.
Opening for the Britpop giants on their ‘Live ‘25’ tour, Ashcroft dedicated The Verve’s hit song ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ to him, while Liam and Noel Gallagher took to the stage later in the night and honoured him on ‘Live Forever’.
Other on-stage tributes have come from My Bloody Valentine and Primal Scream, and The Libertines.
In a tribute, NME described Mani as holding “a rare place in the world of bass heroes”, and someone who “defined a scene with some of the most infectious and hypnotic basslines ever recorded.”
