Following the news that The Stone Roses have split, MANI tells TOMMY UDO about his reasons for leaving and his future plans with Primal Scream.
THE STONE ROSES are officially no more. At the start of last week, founder members Mani and Ian Brown finally pulled the plug, allowing the group a dignified and amicable end.
Speaking to NME on Tuesday from his home in Stockport, Manchester, an optimistic and happy sounding Gary 'Mani' Mounfield said the feeling in the band when he announced his departure was very positive.
"I think they pretty much saw it coming," he said. "I've made it pretty clear in the last couple of weeks that I feel I need to do something for myself. I've always got Ian to fall back on. I spoke to him yesterday morning and he's saying 'Go do it. Go smash it ! You need to do something. Get out and do it.' I didn't altogether slam the door on working with Ian again in the future. I think Ian and the boys will be continuing under a new name. They just thought it was time to drop the name because it's not the 'Roses' anymore. We wanna leave two classic LPs untainted. We wouldn't wanna do anything which would detract from them."
AS THE post Reading headline in NME said (September 7), 1996 was 'A Bad Year For The Roses'. But the decline really began in earnest when original drummer Alan 'Reni' Wren left the band in April 1995. Unable to cope with touring because of, as Mani puts it, his "personal problems", Reni seemed to have quit music altogether when he left the Roses. Nevertheless, replacement Robbie Maddix quickly became enmeshed in the soul of the band and it seemed that all was not lost.
When John Squire left in March of this year, though, it was all over bar the shouting. There were few who could have witnessed the band's performance at Reading and thought they could overcome their problems with a bit of front, a bit of positive thinking and an aggressive denial that The Stone Roses were anything but the most important band in the universe.
The announcement last Monday, October 28, that the band were no more came as something of a relief - not least to Ian Brown and Mani.
Ian Brown's statement says very little other than the fact that it's over for the band called The Stone Roses. But he says it with a great deal of aplomb, arrogance and style: "Having spent the last ten years in the filthiest business in the universe, it's a pleasure to announce the end of The Stone Roses. May God bless all who gave us their love and supported us throughout this time. Special thanks to the people of Manchester who sent us on our way, peace be upon you."
Instead of being depressed at the end of the Roses, Mani sounded upbeat, principally about his future as the new bass player in Primal Scream.
"I'm chuffed to be joining the Scream, it's like it's just a little step to the left for me. And with us coming out of the same area… I love 'em, you know. They're a top bunch of lads. I think I'm probably gonna start with live work. I think I'm going to drop some bass on a couple of tracks from the new album. I'm just waiting to get given a tape of a couple of songs that they wanna redo. But I'm absolutely buzzing at the prospect. I was asked ages ago, so I thought I'd play it by ear. I told them if it didn't work out with the Roses then I'd love to be involved. I've known Bobby (Gillespie) a good few years, from when he used to come and hang around the Hacienda in Manchester, and we've always got on. I've got a lot of respect for the man Bobby Gillespie. He's a dude."
The offer for Mani to join Primal Scream, one of this year's most spectacular rock'n'roll premier league transfer deals, was not, however, the main reason he wanted to leave the Roses. He had been in the process of assembling a new band in the weeks before his departure, adding weight to the rumours reported in NME following Reading that he actually quit the band then.
"I wanted to get something new going," he said. "Because I was on the verge of that a few weeks ago. I got everything together bar a vocalist. But then I had the hideous thought that I'd be starting at the f---ing bottom again."
He still doesn't acknowledge that Reading was any kind of a low point.
"I enjoyed myself there, I really did. I f---ing really did," he laughs, "seeing f---ing 60,000 people jumping around. I didn't think it was that shit, to tell you the truth. I know Ian didn't have the best of nights, but, you know, shit happens."
Mani has always found it frustrating that the band never did much in the way of live work and looks forward to being onstage more with the Primals.
"That, for me, is what I'm in a band for. I'm not in it to be driving a Rolls-Royce into country house swimming pools. I just love to get up and show off for an hour-and-a-half in front of people. It's a buzz. There's nothing better."
THE DEPARTURE of Reni in 1995 left a huge void in the band. It left not only a vacant drum stool but also a hole in the spirit of The Stone Roses. The beany-style hats that became almost trademark of the Roses, came to be known as Reni-hats.
"Well, he's left a legacy there, he's got a f---ing hat named after him now," said Mani. "It wasn't really the same once Reni left. It's difficult when you lose an original member like that, especially one that's as influential as he was. It's hard, man, no two ways about it. We always put on this front like, 'Oh yeah, we'll overcome it,' but it did take a bit of getting over. But he'll be back, I'm sure of that, because I know the man.
"From what I've heard, he's got an LP of songs ready to record. Reni had a lot of personal problems in his life and he couldn't concentrate on the music, and something had to give so he gave up the music. But the guy was the best drummer in the world and he could walk into any band that he wants to when he feels that the time is right. And good luck to the world, because the world misses him."
The departure of John Squire in March was really the body blow that finished the band, though. Mani considered making his exit at the same time.
"I only finalised it yesterday (Tuesday October 29) but I thought about it when John left," he said. "I thought at that time, 'Do it ! Do it ! You should do it !' But some strange sense of loyalty gripped me and I decided to give it a go with Ian. I couldn't be seen to be dropping him in it. So I stuck around for a few more sessions just to give it a go. You know, we've all sort of got our heads together and decided we should end it, because it's not The Stone Roses any more."
He added: "I've just got myself into the train of thought that now it's time to do something for myself. I've always done something for the good of the whole and now I've got to do something for myself, to make myself happy."
ACCORDING TO Mani and other sources close to the band, there is now little acrimony between the original members of the band. At the press conference before their Reading experience, though, all of the problems of the band were squarely laid at the door of John Squire.
"He became friends with cocaine," Ian Brown said. "Before that he was straight."
Mani said at the time: "I feel sad that I saw John onstage f---ing hanging out with Oasis the other week. Has he joined the Phil Collins, Paul McCartney club now ?"
Now he's slightly more forgiving towards his old band mate. He hasn't heard Squire's new band The Seahorses, but has tried to contact him.
"John's been double busy as you probably realise. I've dropped him a couple of messages but I think he's in the studio right now. But I've seen a couple of people who he works with and passed my regards on and that. I fully expect his band to smash it when they come out too. John Squire is a really f---ing talented man. And I tried everything to persuade him to stay when he said he wanted to leave. But you know, he probably had the same thoughts as myself, to get on and do something fresh and new. I did not see it coming. I was ecstatic after the British tour. I had just come home from holiday in Jamaica and the phone went saying that he was going."
They all seemed angry with him at the press conference at Reading, though.
"There's a bit of resentment flying around there," said Mani. "I think it got a bit blown up, all that. I wish the guy f---ing every bit of luck in the world."
Mani couldn't really say what exactly went wrong and that there were no Oasis-style bust-ups. In fact, he thinks that may have been the problem.
"We've never had fights, there's never been a punch-up in the band. There have been a few shoutings down and shit like that, but there's never been bad feelings in our band, there's always been perfect karma. The problem is that things are more likely to go unsaid, and people will be having a sulk at you across the room. No, there's been no bad feeling."
THERE HAVE always been similarities between Primal Scream and The Stone Roses. Both bands had their roots in classic rock but were inspired by the revolutionary UK dance scene in the late-'80s.
"Well, there's a lot of parallels that can be drawn there really," says Mani. "All their record collections are pretty much a mirror image of what we've got. And we all seem to be into the same kind of stuff. It's a totally logical move for me."
The reaction to Primal Scream's last album, 1994's George Drakoulias-produced 'Give Out But Don't Give Up', was mixed; it upset a lot of people who were expecting another heavily dance-influenced 'Screamadelica'. The new album, due for release in February next year, is said to be closer in spirit to their mega-platinum selling 1991 double. It is nearing completion - there are still tracks to be mixed and some may be added and others put aside - but sees the Scream reunited with producers Andrew Weatherall and Brendan Lynch.
Gillespie, a man with the Ian Brown knack of saying nothing, but saying it in a very spectacular fashion, describes the new material as being like a Sam Peckinpah movie: "Slow motion and a lot of shooting."
Mani said: "I was down the other week, I went off to their little bunker and heard what they've done so far. It's great. It's a real mix-up, there's a blend of different styles going on there, all of which I'm right into. A bit of dub, a bit of funk. Nothing I can't handle….. I am the world's greatest bass player after all ! But I'm absolutely f---ing up for it !"
But has he done any photos with the band ?
"No, but I'll have to get me leather keks and winkos out, won't I ?" he said.
AS A coda to The Stone Roses story, there will be a live album released next year which will include material from both studio albums and the band's singles, recorded during their 1995 dates. According to Mani, the remaining former Roses - Brown, Maddix, Ibrahim and Ipinson - are sticking together and have already written new songs which Mani says hold out the prospect of Ian Brown pulling off a Shaun Ryder-style resurrection.
"Listen mate, I've heard 12 songs and they're sounding pretty good to me !" he laughed. "You know, those two new songs we played at Reading ('Ice Cold Cube' and 'High Time') were just two that were rustled up quickly to show that we could. They're all talented, creative guys, they'll come back with a smash LP. I'm sure of it."
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