Some Mondays are happier than others. For fans of baggy, Madchester indie, this particular cold, frosty start to the week will be remembered as the day they heard that the Happy Mondays would be reassembling their original line-up for a May tour. That means Shaun Ryder -Tony Wilson's 'street poet' - will be joining up with Rowetta, Bez, Gary, Mark and the two Pauls for the first time in nearly 20 years.

The Mondays are stitched thickly into the Factory legend and the rise and fall of the Hacienda. They were ambassadors for Manchester's assault on the music world and, at the same time, were exactly the kind of lads the Hacienda could do without. The Happy Mondays were a gang and wherever they went, they made the headlines. Two decades after their colourful, exciting, destructive heyday, the music is still as rich and vibrant an account of urban life as any UK grime or garage.

They may be older, and undoubtedly wiser, but when the Happy Mondays take the stage in early May, expect a riot. Joining Shaun and Bez and co on the tour will be special guests the Inspiral Carpets. Having recently reformed with their original line-up, with Ste Holt on vocals in place of Tom Hingley, the Inspirals are embarking on a March tour (dates below). We still have face-value tickets available for some dates.

The tour everyone's talking about kicks off in Newcastle on 3rd May, followed by dates in Manchester (MEN Arena), Sheffield, London (two nights at the Brixton Academy), Leeds and more, before the final gig of the tour announced so far at Rock City in Nottingham on 18th May 2012.

We will have tickets available when they go on sale at 10am on Friday 3rd February, priced from £35 (£37.50 for London). Tickets for Dublin (15th May) will cost €49.65 and go on sale at 9am on the same day.

Like the Stone Roses gigs before them, there is no doubt that these shows will sell out very quickly, so step on.