Mani. Legend. Gutted to hear this news. Roses and Mondays were a huge part of my musical and cultural journey aged 16/17 and onwards.
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Same here, Mani’s fringe too I could never quite replicate it much as I tried. Cool as. May he Rest in Peace.
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It feels like all the heroes are gradually leaving us. The Stone Roses meant more to me than I can properly articulate. As a young lad that grew up just close enough to feel the seismic cultural ripples coming of Manchester in the early 90’s, the Roses felt like some kind of mythical pan pipers to me and my pals. That halcyon period between 89-90 where the summer never seemed to end, thier debut album was never off the record player and I must have all but worn out the grooves. By 1990 the Roses were embroiled in a legal dispute with thier former record company and wouldn’t emerge for another four years, by which time the mystique around them only intensified. Mani’s deeply groovy rhythmical basslines are the backbone of era defining classics Fools Gold, I Am The Resurrection, Daybreak, Begging You and countless other timeless songs with the Roses and later Primal Scream. A tragic loss, but Mani leaves behind an unmatched body of work that defined a generation.
RIP Mani. Burst Into Heaven x
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Funny you mention that about the NME clippings. I was too young first time around, but got into the Roses around 98 when I was still at school. First band I got properly obsessed about to the point I would track down old editions of Q and NME from 89-91 that had a tiny articles about them, think I was trying to time travel back to that point when they were untouchable and not tarnished by the second album and break up.
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You’re right about our heroes leaving us, this one has hit me hard, I’ve felt numb since I heard, trying to process it and understand what it is i’m feeling other than obvious sadness, I’m still not sure.
The Stone Roses and that first album in particular will always be the sound of youthful positivity, optimism and the chance of endless possibilities for me, because I was 14 and full of young naivety when I first heard it and became obsessed with it, those feelings seemed to be in the air at that moment and the band and their songs seemed to have distilled those sentiments perfectly.
I’m a middle aged cynic now but whenever I put that album on it still takes me back to those initial feelings, even after all these years and countless times listening to it.
To now realise that the band member who represented that positivity and optimism the most has now gone forever is very sobering and really brings home how ephemeral life is.
Fly high Mani.
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Ah man very very sad for everyone who knew him but especially for his kids, heartbreaking.
Slightly too young for the Roses but saw Mani with Scream a fair few times, when Kevin Shields was in the band around XTRMNTR / Evil Heat era and he just fucking ripped. Somewhere between Lemmy and Bootsy in that period.
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My first musical love (well, after Bros). Reni was my man and got me playing and loving drums. I moved when I was 11 and was cutting about in flairs and fishing hat, haha.
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The Roses at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool is still one of the best gigs of my life.
I was a 15-year-old from the sticks into skateboarding, Vision Street Wear and the Pixies.
Coach loads of cool kids from Manchester turned up and blew my mind.
The next weekend I went to Afflecks Palace and bought a paisley shirt and a copy of Voodoo Ray
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Nice. Had that gig on vhs and watched it to death
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There’s a bootleg that’s credited to “The Rock Flowers”
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Anything that annoys BG is good for me.
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Strangely enough, I just sold all my Stone Roses original 12" singles last week on a Facebook vinyl page in order to fund my new stereo. I’m thinking I should christen the new speakers with the SR debut album as a tribute to Mani’s contribution, both to the culture and also his inadvertently helping to pay for the system.
edit: here’s one i’ll never sell…
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Was just reading Pete Paphides newsletter and he was saying how the Roses lifted the ‘fools gold’ bassline from young mc ‘know how’ which might well have been one of the first encounters between UK indie and US hiphop culture. (stand to be corrected on that)
Personally, I was never massively sold on the Roses and actually preferred Ian Brown’s solo stuff before he went loopy. Mani was always good value though. Saw him DJ with Ryder in the Turnmills backroom about 20 years ago and it was as shambolic as you’d expect, with maybe 11 of us there, but still a lot of fun
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Thats a brilliant interview, thank you for posting
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Yep, Know How was influential on Fools Gold, he openly talked about it, that and Hot Pants by Bobby Byrd.
A lot of his influences were funk and northern soul records, that’s where the Roses got their groove from, same with Paul Ryder, so I guess that was a huge part of Indie Dance/Baggy/Madchester.
On a related note, I used to read NME religiously in those days and what always struck me when reading interviews with American indie/guitar bands was their influences would always be other white guitar bands/singers and then the UK bands would be talking about funk/ northern soul/hip hop/reggae/house as influences. I think radio formats in both countries had a big influence in that.
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This is also good.
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Very sad news.
Me and my mates were 16 when they reformed in 2012 and we were all huge fans. Our dads had bought us all up on them, and every house party, night down the park, and sixth form common room we shared was soundtracked by that first album. Hazy memories of dancing to I Am the Resurrection on a suburban Norwich roof at 4am. As pulsatio7 said above, that record will always be the sound of youthful positivity and optimism for me too.
We all went to one of the Finsbury Park gigs in 2013 which was such a rush. Mani had that beaming smile on his face the entire gig, the one that he always seemed to have. Clearly a top bloke and a great musician. RIP.
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