“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.