The Stone Roses’ Pete Garner dies aged 61: Ian Brown leads tributes to band’s original bassist

Pete Garner, former bassist of the pioneering English rock band The Stone Roses, has died at the age of 61. 

The musician was the Manchester band’s original bassist but quit the group in 1987 to go and work at HMV because he didn’t feel worthy of being in the band.

Former bandmate Ian Brown led tributes to the late rocker as he claimed ‘few loved music as much’ as Pete.

Pete’s cause of death has not been confirmed. 

Responding to a user on X, formerly Twitter, as they commented on the sad news, Ian wrote: ‘Yeah very sad. We were young punk rockers when we met in 77.’

He continued: ‘The nite before Petes maths and geography O levels we went to see the Clash. Always made me chuckle he did that and of course he made the right decision! X (sic)’

He later added: ‘Few loved music as much as Pete he been bathing in music since [Sex Pistols’] Anarchy in the Uk came out that i can vouch for and Pete was off the scale nice, an old skool nice that ya just dont get no more! He got that from his lovely Mum! GOD Bless Pete RiP X (sic)’

Pete joined Ian and John Squire in their former band The Patrol in 1980, three years prior to forming The Stone Roses, with rhythm guitarist Andy Couzens and drummer Simon Wolstencroft on drums. Alan ‘Reni’ Wren took over from Simon in 1984.

Pete quit the group in 1987 and was replaced by Mani on bass.

The group began to fall apart when Reni quit in April 1995 on the eve of a world tour. Despite rave reviews for Second Coming, John also quit the Roses in March 1996. 

The world tour grossed £1.2 million but bad debts meant the group members only earned a few thousand pounds each. 

The band were committed to a few final dates, including a disastrous show at Reading Festival, for which they’d turned down offers of help from Slash and Johnny Marr.

In the 15 years after the split, Ian repeatedly blamed John for the band’s demise, saying, ‘If I was in the gutter and my kids lived on the kerb, I’d go and get a job at B&Q before I’d reform the Roses.’ 

Meanwhile, John claimed: ‘I’d rather remove my liver with a teaspoon than reform the Roses.’

However the pair’s friendship rekindled when in 2011 when they attended the funeral of Mani’s mother. Over that summer, Ian was also reconciled with Reni.

The Waterfall hitmakers then reformed in 2012 for a series of massive outdoor concerts and continued to play shows until 2017.

Now John is teaming up with Liam Gallagher on a joint album next year.

The former Oasis frontman recently boasted that the currently untitled LP is ‘the best record’ since The Beatles’ Revolver.

Liam, a Beatles superfan, and John hit the studio after the former surprised fans by bringing the guitarist out for his pair of Knebworth shows last June to perform the Britpop group’s 1995 classic Champagne Supernova.

Liam bragged that their record sounds better than the 1966 LP – which featured the hits Eleanor Rigby and Yellow Submarine.

When asked if it’s true their record is coming out in 2024, he replied on X: ‘It’s the best record since revolver (sic).’

When another user said that was a ‘big statement’, Liam wrote back: ‘What’s coming your way is bigger I’m being humble it p***** all over it. (sic)’

Liam previously said his dream supergroup would include someone out of The Stone Roses and his close friend, Richard Ashcroft, formerly of The Verve.

In 2017, he said: ‘The ideal ones would be the guys out of The Stone Roses. I think they just split up, so that would be good.

‘[Richard] Ashcroft would be good. There’s a lot of people out there, but the majority of them are all doing their own thing. But, if they want to do one, give us a shout. I’ll do it.’