Mani: Revisiting a Classic Interview from the Hot Press Chat Room at Electric Picnic

“C’mon, I’m fucking Irish, let’s have it!”

That was Mani greeting the two hundred or so mad-for-it fans who’d squeezed into the Hot Press Chat Room at Electric Picnic in 2007.

At Stradbally with the rest of Primal Scream who were touring their Riot City Blues album and plotting the Beautiful Future follow-up, Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield had been due to call into us at around 6pm, but arrived fashionably late at nine-ish, which was a mere hour before the Scream Team were due on stage.

Due to a computer corrupting, we thought that his public interview with our man Stuart Clark had been lost, but eerily just days after his tragic November 16 death, aged 63, one of the crew here discovered it on a backup disc.

The former – and future – Stone Roses man was in such ebullient form that we thought you might like to read some of what went down that night before Mani was literally dragged away by the Primals’ tour manager to play their gig.

As you may detect, both interviewee and interviewer were high on, er, emotion…

Stuart Clark: Before I forget, The Undertones were in the Chat Room last night and wanted me to send you their regards:

Mani: I love the O’Neill brothers, man! (Bursts into Sesame Street song): “If they’re the people that you meet / When you’re walking down the street / There are people that you meet each day.” Yeah!

Is there anyone else you know on the Picnic bill like Iggy Pop who’s on later?

Yeah, we did some gigs two years ago in Japan. He came up to me and said (adopts Iggy-ian drawl) “Hey, Mr. Bass!” and I started blushing, man. He knows who I am, leg it!

The Stone Roses live at The Phoenix Park, Dublin, 5th July 2012

I seem to remember reading that your family’s from Kildare.

Yeah, they’re from just up the road in Castledermot. Are there people from Castledermot here? Yeah? Check this out – Johnny Marr was asking Gillespie one day what my mum’s maiden name is. It’s O’Farrell, the fighting O’Farrells. Johnny told Gillespie that my lot and the Marrs were five doors apart from each other on a street of six houses. Apparently, Johnny’s mam was in our house more than she was in her own. My family brought Johnny fucking Marr’s mam up! Can you believe that?

Did you come across as a nipper for summer holidays?

Totally.

It was the All Ireland today, did you ever play hurling?

Give a big Paddy a stick in his hand, throw a ball in and then you’ve got a game, haven’t you? See Beckham and all that lot? Nah, bunch of girls. Come on the Lilywhites, man! Me uncle Christy went missing for about twenty odd years. We found him in Thurles where the Trip To Tipp used to be.

One of your favourite Stone Roses gigs being Féile ’95 when it moved to Cork.

Páirc Uí Chaoimh? Jesus Christ, almighty!

You’ve a couple of tunes that are so new they haven’t got titles yet.

No, we haven’t got names for ‘em. You have to look around at the others and go, “That one which goes, ‘Der-duderer-der.’”

I assume this means a new album is in the gestation period?

Next weekend we’re doing the Bestival, right? That’s on the Sunday. On Monday we’re straight in the studio. We’ve got Little Barrie back on board. Which weirdly makes us pick up our game a bit. He’s a little genius twat, isn’t he? So, for a bunch of old gurriers like we are, we’re getting straight about it, man! It’s kind of a move back towards Vanishing Point/Xtrmntr. That mad stuff. We tried the commercial one and it was great. Thank you for the ‘Country Girl’ thing. The cheque was lovely. I’ve been buying Lambrettas and Vespas off the back of it. But now we’ve gone back to being the bunch of twisted bastards that we are.

Is it still the old set up at The Bunker where you go in at all times of day and night and do your thing?

I get the rattler down from the People’s Republic of Mancunia on a Tuesday and then probably make it home on a Thursday night or a Friday. We’re in there on a daily basis just having fun, man. We just left Sony because, no disrespect – much! – they didn’t do fuck all with the last LP when they should have done. We’ve signed a new deal with B-Unique who’ve got the Kaiser Chiefs’ ‘I Predict A Diet’ and The Twang. We just thought we’d show willing…

Were you surprised to find your old Primals bandmate Kevin Shields on the front of the Camden New Journal giving out about a noisy neighbour?

Kevin Shields complaining about noise pollution is so psychedelic it’s beyond words! The fun and absolute sonic shenanigans we had making Xtrmntr and Evil Heat were all down to Kevin. He fired everything into the computer and the song came out the other end. I have no doubt that we’ll work together again in the future - the Scream is for life, not just Christmas!

(Shout from the crowd): How’s John Squire?

He’s painting. He’s doing my kitchen next week. Allegedly.

You’re a big Arctic Monkeys fan, aren’t you?

Fucking great band! I can imagine that being a teenager and listening to ‘em is the same as it was for me back in ‘76 with The Clash. The reason I love the Monkeys is they’ve usurped the power from the industry and done it themselves using the internet. They’re far more fuckin’ clued-in than the Roses were at their age.

Glen Matlock from the Pistols is moving in to your territory by becoming a celebrity DJ.

Is he? He’s probably fucking better than I am.

Peter Hook said to us last year that all DJs are cunts.

He’s a cunt, isn’t he? No, I’m only joking. I do love Uncle Pete Hacienda. Do you know what Peter Hook always says to me when he sees me? “How’s the world’s second-best bass player getting on?” And you know what I say back to him? “I don’t know Pete, how are you?” There’s a nice friendly rivalry.

Are you going ahead with being in Freebass together?

We’ve a load of shit recorded already but then New Order and the Scream got in the way of stuff. It just started out as a way to get fucking Hooky off my back. He was phoning me up and I went, “Alright, we’ll do something.” We ended up getting about seventeen bits of tunes together. But finding a singer is difficult. If there’s anyone here who sings, looks good and writes good lyrics… I was a big fan of James Jameson from Motown – I like funkiness, white guys can be funky – Paul Simonon from The Clash and Hooky with Joy Division. That’s what made me want to pick the bass guitar up. Timmy Two-String, that’s what I call Hooky. “Ning-a-ning-ning” – he’s like the Crazy Frog, isn’t he? I play all four.

You can revisit another classic Mani interview from the Hot Press archives here.