Simone Marie Butler has announced her departure from Primal Scream, 14 years after becoming a full-time member in 2012.
“I want to thank everyone who I’ve had the pleasure to play in front of for the last 13 years with Primal Scream,” the bass guitar player writes on social media.
“It truly has been an amazing ride with genuinely beautiful people. So so many incredible times, laughs and experiences. That’s the dream right there. Bobby, Andrew and the band are incredible musicians and people.
Article continues below“Going forward I will no longer be playing with the band and shall miss that, but I truly wish them all the very best for the future.”
Butler goes on to say that she is “incredibly grateful to have been part of this band for so long, to have traveled the entire world, to meet the most amazing people and amazing fans and to play music I love and learn so much from the guys as musicians and performers. It’s been a great learning curve.”
She continues, “Primal Scream’s music meant a lot to me even before I was playing those iconic bass lines and when I got that call to audition it felt like divine timing so I’d like to thanks Bobby and Andrew for taking a chance on me all those years ago.”
Butler joined Primal Scream after the previous bassist, Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield, left to rejoin The Stone Roses, and My Bloody Valentine's Debbie Googe briefly filled in as the band's touring bassist.
No official statement has been given by the band following Butler's announcement, and at the time of writing, any potential new bassist has not yet been revealed.
Mounfield passed away last November at the age of 63. Tributes poured in for the Stone Roses and former Primal Scream bassist from all corners of the industry, with Oasis’ Liam Gallagher, Joy Division co-founder Peter Hook and Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder leading the charge.
