Son Danny is set to be a dad in October making Maureen a grandma just one month after older sister Anne reaches the same milestone courtesy of her daughter Alex.
"I can't wait – I'm really looking forward to it – just as long as I'm not called on too many times to babysit." says Maureen.
Those duties could prove difficult as the birth is due whilst Maureen and fellow
sisters Coleen, Bernie and Linda are on their headline hitting reunion tour -–
celebrating the 30th anniversary of their biggest hit, I'm In The Mood For Dancing, and 25 years since this particular version of the famous family performed together.
It's a comeback which has been talked about for years but for a variety of reasons never happened.
"We'd talked about it obviously but we'd all gone our own ways with our own
careers and it never seemed to be the right time or the right offer," admits Maureen, who is enjoying her first full scale tour in the Willy Russell classic after playing the same role in the West End from 2005 to 2007 and deputising for sister Linda when she was ill with breast cancer.
"We always wanted any reunion to be the real deal and when Universal Records and promoters Live Nation contacted us we knew it was right," she says. "We rang each other up and we all said "yes let's do it" at the same time.
"To be honest we hadn't even realised it was 30 years since I'm In the Mood For Dancing – let alone 25 since this line-up last performed in public together."
But whilst the famous four are thrilled to be back on tour – and making a new album as well as having a DVD made about the trek – Maureen has to admit it has
deepened the rift with Anne.
Her serialised autobiography caused upset with its warts and all tales of life in the Nolan clan and a recent national
newspaper article poured further salt on the family wounds by accusing the
reunited four of betraying her.
"It is all very, very upsetting – almost too bad to think about," admits Maureen, who together with Anne, Anne's daughter Amy and family friend Julia were the last of the singers to carry on performing under the group name. "But this was the line-up the record company and tour promoters
wanted. Back then Anne had left to raise her family and these days she isn't in showbusiness anymore. We certainly didn't stab her in the back – it's just the way that everyone organising the comeback saw the group."
She agrees that apart from the pleasure of performing together, the tour and recording revenue of this and any other subsequent tours had also played its part.
"The money? Obviously we thought about it before any decision was made," she says. "We didn't make that much first time around for one reason and another, so yes, it came into it."
For the meantime though she's got the rest of the Blood Brothers tour to complete – then possibly a week on holiday in
Sorrento before it's down to rehearsals for the reunion.
"We nearly got away last year but then there just wasn't time," she says. "It's a very draining show to do but it's also a
delight because I was actually a Blood Brothers groupie – I'd seen it 17 times
before I got a part in it. I absolutely love it and there's no better part than Mrs
Johnson for a woman of my age.
"But you do go through it at the end. Those are genuine tears at the end.
Sometimes it's about the show – sometimes it's about what's going on in your life, like family rows or when mum was reaching the end with Alzheimers."
Back at the reunion and to coin a cliche, do the four of them think they really will be in the mood for dancing after all this time?
"Well, it will be full on choreography and we are out to prove we can be divas," she says. "But it's the heat we are worried about. We are all determined to be fit – there could be nothing worse than four of us gasping for breath with our make-up runningbecause of the sweat!"
* Blood Brothers is at the Grand Theatre until Saturday. The Nolans are at Blackpool Opera House on October 20.