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" Happy Mondays have confirmed that they are to reunite.  The &amp;#039;Step On&amp;#039; band&amp;#039;s original lineup Shaun Ryder, his brother Paul, Bez, Gary Whelan and Paul Davis met last week to commit to an 11-date UK tour in May.   Shaun Ryder said: &amp;quot;We all met up last week and some of the lads haven&amp;#039;t seen each other in over 10, 15 years. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s as if we&amp;#039;ve never been apart - so good to all be in the same room again. We can&amp;#039;t wait now to get on tour and play the songs that made us famous.&amp;quot; Backing singer and former X Factor contestant Rowetta Satchell confirmed the news to BBC Radio Manchester&amp;#039;s Darryl Morris yesterday (January 29).  &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s been in the making for ages,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ve been talking about it for a long time, but it&amp;#039;s [been about] getting everybody to say yes, because it was decided from the beginning it would only be special and work if it was a total, original lineup.&amp;quot;  On reuniting with the band, she added: &amp;quot;It was brilliant, it was really nerve-wracking but its going to be fabulous. We&amp;#039;re all really excited. &amp;quot;We have reformed before, but it wasn&amp;#039;t the real Mondays. It wasn&amp;#039;t the original band. We&amp;#039;ve not been on stage for 20 years... it&amp;#039;s just going to be amazing.&amp;quot;  The full Happy Mondays tour dates are as follows:  May 3 - Newcastle O2 Academy May 4 - Glasgow O2 Academy May 5 - Manchester Arena May 6 - Sheffield O2 Academy May 9 - Bournemouth O2 Academy May 10 - London O2 Academy Brixton May 11 London O2 Academy Brixton May 12 - Birmingham O2 Academy May 15 - Dublin Olympia May 17 - Leeds O2 Academy May 18 - Nottingham Rock City   Satchell said that rumours Happy Mondays would support the newly-reformed Stone Roses were false, though Ryder has expressed an interest in playing with the band.  &amp;quot;We were talking about reforming for ages. I do know Shaun would be up for it, I&amp;#039;m sure the rest of the band would, but it&amp;#039;s not been talked about to us,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;For us its been more about getting back together, not which gigs can we do. As long as we&amp;#039;ve not killed each other, I&amp;#039;m sure we&amp;#039;d love to do it.&amp;quot;  Satchell is also hopeful that the reunion will lead to a record deal and the release of new material from the Happy Mondays. The 46-year-old continued: &amp;quot;Any problems that we&amp;#039;ve had been are out the window now... they are my family these boys, and I&amp;#039;ve really missed them and I&amp;#039;m sure they&amp;#039;ve missed each other.  &amp;quot;When we make music, something special happens, so I can&amp;#039;t wait to do that in front of a big crowd.&amp;quot; Confirmation of Happy Mondays reforming follows an unofficial announcement earlier this month. The rumours were previously denied by a spokesperson in early December.  Watch the music video for &amp;#039;Step On&amp;#039; by Happy Mondays below:      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/music/news/a362765/happy-mondays-confirm-reformation/>