Stone Roses icon Gary “Mani” Mounfield has died aged 63, almost exactly two years after the loss of his beloved wife, Imelda — leaving their young twin sons orphaned in a tragedy that has shaken the music world.
Emergency services were called to the bassist’s home on Thursday morning, but no patient was taken to hospital. No cause of death has been confirmed. His passing comes just days after the anniversary of Imelda’s heartbreaking death from stage-four bowel cancer in November 2023, aged only 52.
The couple were parents to twin boys, Gene Clark and George Christopher, now believed to be around 12. Mani had proudly announced their birth back in January 2013 on Imelda’s Twitter account, writing that they had welcomed “two gorgeous boys” and sending “love n peace to all.”
Mani and Imelda revealed they were expecting in September 2012, joking that the twins were his “double bass.” Their family life was shattered when Imelda was diagnosed with cancer. Speaking to ITV’s Granada Reports in 2022, she said the news came out of nowhere: the tumour in her bowel had already spread to her liver. She recalled the moment as “a massive shock,” explaining she hadn’t felt unwell at all before the emergency surgery and intense chemotherapy that followed.
Mani spoke openly about the emotional toll of watching her fight for her life. He said one day he could feel “paranoid and fearful,” but the next he would see “a pride in the fight of the lady.” Comparing the ordeal to his decades on stage, he said performing for 90,000 at Wembley was “a doddle compared to this,” adding that cancer had forced him to “re-evaluate everything — gigs and records mean nothing if my family isn’t ok.”
Imelda died in November 2023. After her funeral, bandmate John Squires paid tribute, recalling how Mani and Imelda “doted on our girls” and were incredibly generous, laughing that Mani “still chucks money at them.”
Following Mani’s death, his nephew shared a moving tribute online, saying he hoped his uncle would now be reunited with Imelda in heaven and adding: “Thinking of his twins at this sad time.”
The twins, once the joy of their parents’ lives, now face a future without either of them — a double tragedy fans say is “almost too heartbreaking to comprehend.”