The singing sisters everyone thought were the sweetest girls in pop are on the verge of a comeback - but one of the Nolans is seriously not in the mood.

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Eldest sister Anne is spitting mad after being denied a place in the tour line-up.

And after she launched a bitter attack in a daily newspaper, it seems the gloves are now off for the rest of the girls.

Bernie Nolan, the group's dynamic lead singer turned actress in Brookside and The Bill, is biting back. Tearful condemnations from Anne are nothing more than sour grapes, she says

" I'm disgusted and quite astounded at the stuff she's been saying," says Bernie, 48.

Anne's eruption came after the line-up of only four Nolans was announced for their countrywide, 30th anniversary tour this autumn - and her sisters claimed in press interviews it was her choice not to join them back on stage.

Despite their assurances that she was happier out of the limelight, she claims to be "devastated" and has accused her sisters of stabbing her in the back.

She's blaming a long-standing row with Coleen for being at the root of it.

And Bernie, 10 years Anne's junior, is livid.

"She says she feels betrayed by us, but we feel like it's us who have been stabbed in the back. We said all of that because we were trying to protect her. But finally we have to tell it like it is.

"In her view, the row between her and Coleen is at the crux of it all. But it's got nothing to do with it.

"We have said a million times that it's not our fault and it wasn't our choice to leave Anne out. The tour company made the decision to go with the four who were still in the business, still slogging away at it.
"She wasn't chosen and the problem is she can't accept it. It's sour grapes."

Bernie says she and her other sisters genuinely believed Anne was happy with her life outside of showbusiness.

"We are upset and amazed at her reaction. She left the band. She gave up entertainment two years ago to be a full-time civil servant and seemed so happy doing what she was doing," she says.

"The really shocking thing is she won't take any of our calls. She won't speak to her own sisters about this; she chooses to take other people's views over ours.

"I love Anne; I want the best for her in life but where is her dignity?
"Anne keeps bringing personal family issues into the public domain. She did it when she wrote her biography. I didn't want her to, but it was her choice and I didn't fall out with her over it," she says, passing reference to the book Anne's Song, which claimed the girls' father had sexually abused her as a child.

"I got the axe from The Bill - I didn't want to leave and I was devastated. But I had to accept it. I didn't go around sounding off about it.

"If I had been left out of the tour I'd have been upset, but I'd have rooted for the others," she insists. "I'd have been in the front row, cheering them on."

Many will be dismayed at the way family feuding is carving chunks out of sisters who always seemed so close and supportive of each other.
Together, they have got through so many of life's traumas. In Bernie's own words, "We all rally round in a cocoon around the one that's suffering."

They were there for Linda when she battled breast cancer and suffered the death of her husband, and for Bernie when she endured the death of her baby. Coleen's break-up with philandering husband Shane Ritchie was very public, but eased by the comforting words of her family. And all the girls were devastated by the death of their mother, who had suffered from Alzheimer's for a number of years.

Can they eventually reunite and heal the bond of sisterhood between them and Anne? It seems an impossibility at the moment. But then, miracles often seem to be worked in that family.

For a start, who would have thought that five wholesome as apple pie girls from Dublin would sell over 25 million records worldwide and outsell The Beatles in Japan?

You could even say Girl Power started with the Nolans. They were packing dancefloors long before the Spice Girls, Bananarama, Girls Aloud or the Sugababes were probably even born.

When their pop fame dwindled, Nolan after Nolan kept popping back into our lives in the most unexpected of places.

Coleen, the baby of the bunch is now the star of ITV1's Loose Women. The straight-talking talk show diva is adored by the nation's housewives. Bernie suddenly appeared as Diane Murray in Brookside. Two years later, she was Sheelagh Murphy in The Bill. She cropped up again in The Games, the Channel 4 sporting series made at Sheffield's Don Valley Stadium. And, like Maureen and Linda, she carved out a name for herself on the West End stage.

And now, here they are again, touring Britain 25 years later.
For Girl Power, now read Middle-Aged Woman Power. The Nolans' reinvention is being greeted as a hugely positive message for all women who feel they are edging past their prime.

Their comeback tour, which will be followed by a new album and DVD, has been greeted with a wave of enthusiasm from the women who have grown up alongside them over the past 30 years. Tickets for their concerts, which are being billed as "the ultimate girls' night out" and will include Sheffield City Hall on November 1, have only been on sale for two weeks but are going fast.

"The interest in the tour has been overwhelming; fantastic," she says. "We didn't really expect it. We did have some trepidation when we were approached. I mean, what if it all turned out to be a flop?

"We are all in our 40s and 50s, we've all got kids and you do start to feel like you're becoming invisible at this stage in your life," explains Bernie. "But we hope that by doing the tour we are saying: Life begins at 50 - you can still achieve anything you want to."

Which is what makes the fall-out with Anne even sadder.
"It is all very upsetting," she agrees. "But we have got to get on with this show and have the most brilliant time.

"We've had thousands of letters and emails of support from fans, telling us they understand and not to let it spoil things.
"At the moment the credit crunch is bringing people down. We all want to go back to happier times.

The girls that danced along to us in the Eighties want to feel young and carefree again, even if it's just for one night."
And with or without Anne's blessing, the sisters are determined to give them that.

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