Mystery as Rowetta QUITS the Happy Mondays after 35 years – and band issues cold statement

HAPPY Mondays singer Rowetta has sensationally quit the band, with both sharing the same statement on social media to confirm her departure.

The statement on Instagram reads: "Happy Mondays and Rowetta announce that Rowetta will no longer be performing with the band.

"Happy Mondays thank Rowetta for her services and wish her all the best for the future."

But fans hoping for more detail about the reasoning behind Rowetta and the band going their seperate ways have been left disappointed.

Having shared the same statement on her own Instagram page, Rowetta then promptly turned the comments off.

She also shared a post of her own, in which she confirmed she won't be commenting further.

She said: "Sorry I can’t read & reply to any messages, as having family time & getting ready for Chrimbo.

"Thanks for all the love. Really looking forward to a very special 2025."

One fan asked in the comments: "What's happened, are you okay?" While another simply stated: "Their loss, Row."

The 58-year-old joined the Manchester group in 1990 and featured on single Step On, which got to number five in the UK charts.

She was with the Happy Mondays for three of their world tours and featured on their third and fourth albums, Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches and Yes Please!.

When the band reformed in 2012, Rowetta joined original members including Shaun Ryder and Bez, as they embarked on a reunion tour.

In 2004 she also appeared on the X Factor and featured in the over 25s category, before being eliminated at the quarter-final stage of the show.

On the programme Rowetta was described by her mentor Simon Cowell as: "Amazing, but barking b***** mad."

She previously said she was glad not to have won X Factor, as she didn't want to release the song already assigned to her, preferring to do an Oasis cover instead.

Rowetta said: "As the top woman, I’m really glad that I didn’t win, because my single would have been Somewhere Over The Rainbow.

"I wanted to do Stop Crying Your Heart Out, Oasis, to be honest, but Simon said it wouldn’t work. But for me, it would have done because then I could have moved on from the X Factor."

Before joining the Happy Mondays Rowetta was a fixture on the Manchester music scene, and featured as a backing singer on Simply Red's 1991 album Stars.

BAND FEUD

Last year, Rowetta revealed that she and Happy Mondays frontman Shaun hadn't been on speaking terms for a number of years.

But having put their differences behind them when the band reformed, they were now getting on far better.

She told the Mirror: "We didn't speak for a long time, myself and Shaun. So now we're getting on really, really better than ever.

"Because I think it does help when you're going through your problems and you do fall out, and you're falling out over nothing sometimes, that if you have a break.

"The last gig we did, we smiled, myself and Sean, we smiled the whole way through."