Pete Garner, the former bassist of the pioneering rock band The Stone Roses, has died at age 61.
Louder Than War confirmed the news on Friday, with Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown leading the tributes on social media.
"Yeah very sad. We were young punk rockers when we met in 77," he reminisced of his former bandmate on social media platform X. "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."
In a separate post, Brown 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."
Garner, a school friend of Brown and Stone Roses guitarist John Squire, first joined the band on stage playing the bass during the final show of Brown and Squire's initial band, The Patrol, in 1980, according to NME.
Three years later, The Stone Roses were formed, bringing in Garner on bass along with Andy Couzens on rhythm guitar and Simon Wolstencroft on drums. Wolstencroft was later replaced by Alan 'Reni' Wren in 1984. The band had their debut performance in October 1984 and released their first single, 'So Young'/'Tell Me', the following year.
A month after the summer 1987 release of their second single, 'Sally Cinnamon,' Garner left the band. According to Louder Than War, he "believed he wasn't good enough for them" and chose to work at HMV.
Before his departure, Garner taught his replacement, Rob Hampson, the bass parts, but soon after, Hampson was replaced by Gary 'Mani' Mounfield in 1987.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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