BASS MOTIVES: Members of the Musicians Union have applied for an injunction to stop greedy bosses from replacing their live band with a sound recording at the West End production of War Horse.

Union assistant general secretary Horace Trubridge said the plans were a breach of contract, adding: “Live theatre should be just that. Live.”

The Royal Court of Justice will issue a judgement on the application next Tuesday April 15.

AUTHOR DIES: Tributes have been paid to Adrian Mole author Sue Townsend, who has died from a stroke aged 68.

Ms Townsend achieved worldwide success with her Adrian Mole series of comic works, set in her hometown of Leicester.

Townsend wrote in secret for 20 years while working as a factory worker, shop assistant and youth worker, eventually finding recognition in her 30s.

She leaves behind her widower, Colin Broadway, and four children.

NORTHERN IRELAND: The government is facing a mass legal action over alleged collusion with loyalists in murders in Northern Ireland in the 1970s.

A total of 32 families will claim the police, army and Northern Ireland Office facilitated or sanctioned the co-operation, their solicitor said.

The court action focuses on killings linked to a loyalist group in Mid Ulster known as the Glenanne gang.

UNIVERSITIES: Lecturers’ union UCU warned yesterday that university classes could be cancelled across Britain in response to bosses’ pay threats against staff taking part in a marking boycott.

Universities told staff they will dock all of their pay during the action, which is against a real-terms pay cut being imposed across the industry.

The union said the threats removed any pretence that universities had students’ best interests at heart.