'Amazing' mural to Stone Roses legend 'Mani' complete

The beaming face of Stone Roses and Primal Scream bassist Gary 'Mani' Mounfield has been turned into a giant mural on the side of one of his favourite pubs.

The image, on the side of the La Fardy Pub on Oldham Road in Mani's home town of Failsworth, was completed by street artist Pic.One.Art over 11 days and also features a second image of him playing the bass guitar.

The 63-year-old died in November last year due to complications from the lung disease emphysema.

Pic.One.Art told the BBC: "We just wanted to create a celebration of his life - not just as a musician - but the generous kind of human being he was."

An online crowdfunding effort, organised by not-for-profit GRIT art studios in Manchester, paid for the mural but is also raising money for The Maggie's Centre cancer charity which supported the musician's wife, Imelda, during her cancer treatment.

Mani's brother, Greg Mounfield, helped facilitate the mural and said it was chosen at a place where they had enjoyed many eventful nights out.

"We've drunk here for years," he said.

"We've fell out of this pub quite a few times over the years me and my brother and all our friends.

"I think it's a great spot to have the mural on; it's a great wall, it's a busy main road, everyone will see it going to the M60, and I think it's fitting."

Mounfield said he had spoken to people from all over the UK who had travelled up to have a photograph next to the mural - which he described as "amazing".

He said he even had a few pints in the La Fardy with a man who had travelled specially from York on the train.

The idea for the mural was inspired by a tribute from Mani's band-mate and Stone Roses lead singer Ian Brown at his star-studded funeral at Manchester Cathedral in January.

John McCaulay, co-founder of GRIT Studios, said: "At his funeral Ian Brown said 'we need to do a gold statue of Mani in Manchester'.

"I don't know anything about gold statues but at GRIT we do commission a lot of public-facing street art so it seemed fitting to do it in Failsworth."

McCaulay said "hundreds and hundreds" of people had donated to the crowdfunding page since it was set up.

"It's by the people, for the people," he said.

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