Zak Starkey has said the late Stone Roses legend Mani said he was ready to dust off his strings and “give it a go” the last time they spoke.
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The much-loved bassist was best known for his time with The Stone Roses and Primal Scream, and died last Thursday (November 20) aged 63, with his brother Greg sharing news with fans.
Tributes then came in from the likes of Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown, Primal Scream’s Simone Butler, Liam Gallagher and many more. Drummer Starkey is one of the latest names to pay tribute to Mani, and took to Instagram to reveal that he was meant to be the bass player in Mantra Of The Cosmos – a supergroup of Starkey’s comprised of Ride and Oasis man Andy Bell with The Happy Mondays‘ Shaun Ryder and Bez.
“Mani was always supposed to be our bass player in Mantra Of The Cosmos,” he told fans. “But due to his amazing strong woman Imelda being v sick he couldn’t commit to Mantras… there was no substitute for Mani so we never had a bass player cos it just wouldn’t have been right.”
Mani died nearly two years to the day of the passing of his wife Imelda, who battled with bowel cancer. Before then, both she and Mani had raised significant amounts of money for local charities, making over £100,000 for The Christie and Stockport NHS Charity through an auction of music and culture memorabilia.
Speaking at the time about the reason for their charity work, Imelda said she had hoped to “alleviate some of the devastation caused to families”. The couple shared twin boys, Gene and George, 12, who were born in January 2013.
“Last time I spoke with Mani said he was ready to ‘dust off me strings and give it a go’, sadly that was not to be… we will all miss him whether he’s on the bass or in yer face.. a beautiful big hearted, cripplingly funny, political, sharp modernist and I loved him so much….”
Starkey’s post featured a clip of him playing alongside Paul Weller and Graham Coxon with Mani on Jonathan Ross’ chat show, with Starkey writing of the performance: “We only played together this one time with the Weller feller and Foxy Coxy on Jonathan Ross but we locked in immediately and could not stop grinning….!”
“We even played a bit of ‘Rain’ in the soundcheck but got a bollocking from the other guys for going off topic!!! What a guy – really.”
Since news of Mani’s death, both Oasis and Richard Ashcroft paid respects to the musician during their respective performances in Brazil over the weekend. The latter dedicated The Verve classic ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ to him, while Liam and Noel Gallagher honoured him on ‘Live Forever’.
Also this weekend, My Bloody Valentine kicked off their first tour in seven years in Dublin and dedicated the gig to the icon, and Primal Scream paid tribute to Mani at their Manchester Warehouse Project show.
In a tribute to the late musician, NME described how Mani “held a rare place in the world of bass heroes” as he “defined a scene with some of the most infectious and hypnotic basslines ever recorded.”
“Both weighty and melodic, Mani’s bewitching basslines became the bedrock and, often, the driving force of The Roses’ breakthrough tracks ‘Elephant Stone’, ‘Made Of Stone’ and ‘She Bangs The Drums’, and underpinned the band’s low-slung funk development on ‘Fools Gold’ – arguably a four-minute encapsulation of the entire late-’80s dance rock scene,” it read.