IN: Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931) is an American novelist, essayist, editor, teacher, and professor emeritus at Princeton University. Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1988 for Beloved. The novel was adapted into a film of the same name (starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover) in 1998. Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.

In 1949 she enrolled at the historically black Howard University, seeking the company of fellow black intellectuals. The school is in Washington, D.C., where she encountered racially segregated restaurants and buses for the first time. She graduated in 1953 with a B.A. in English and went on to earn a Master of Arts from Cornell University in 1955. Her Master's thesis was Virginia Woolf's and William Faulkner's Treatment of the Alienated. She taught English, first at Texas Southern University in Houston for two years, then at Howard for seven years. While teaching at Howard, she met Harold Morrison, a Jamaican architect, whom she married in 1958. She was pregnant with their second son when she and Harold divorced in 1964.  After the breakup of her marriage, she began working as an editor in 1965 for L. W. Singer, a textbook division of Random House, in Syracuse, New York. Two years later she transferred to Random House in New York City, where she became their first black woman senior editor in the fiction department.  In that capacity, Morrison played a vital role in bringing black literature into the mainstream. One of the first books she worked on was the groundbreaking Contemporary African Literature (1972), a collection that included work by Nigerian writers Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe and South African playwright Athol Fugard. She fostered a new generation of African-American authors, including Toni Cade Bambara, Angela Davis, and Gayl Jones, whose writing Morrison discovered, and she brought out the autobiography of boxer Muhammad Ali, The Greatest. She also published and publicized the work of Henry Dumas, a little-known novelist and poet who was shot to death by a transit officer in the New York City subway in 1968.  Among other books Morrison developed and edited is The Black Book (1974), an anthology of photographs, illustrations, essays, and other documents of black life in the United States from the time of slavery to the 1970s. Random House had been uncertain about the project, but it got good reviews. Alvin Beam reviewed it for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, writing, "Editors, like novelists, have brain children--books they think up and bring to life without putting their own names on the title page. Mrs. Morrison has one of these in the stores now, and magazines and newsletters in the publishing trade are ecstatic, saying it will go like hotcakes."

Did she enjoy being an editor?

OUT: Two years later she transferred to Random House in New York City, where she became their first black woman senior editor in the fiction department.


IN: The Wildhearts are an English rock group, formed in 1989 in Newcastle upon Tyne. The band's sound is a mixture of hard rock and melodic pop music, often described in the music press as combining influences as diverse as The Beatles and 1980s-era Metallica. However, this characterization is denied by the band, who see their influences as being far broader, as shown in the song "29 X The Pain", which lists many of group leader Ginger's influences. Despite several top 20 singles and one top 10 album in Britain, the Wildhearts have not achieved major commercial success, owing in part to difficulties with record companies and many internal problems often relating to recreational drugs and depression.

The Wildhearts formed in late 1989, after Ginger was sacked from the Quireboys. An often-told story from this time period is that Ginger decided to start his own band after falling down a flight of stairs with a bottle of Jack Daniel's but emerging with the bottle intact. Had the bottle smashed, he would have slit his wrists with the shards, but instead he resolved to form a band in which he could exercise his songwriting skills, rather than just playing guitar as in his previous bands. Throughout the band's career, Ginger has written almost all the songs himself.  Initially called the Wild Hearts (two words), the band originally included singers Snake (ex-Tobruk) and Dunken F. Mullett (ex-Mournblade), who both joined for short periods. Nine demos were recorded in 1989 and 1990 with Snake singing on four and Dunken on five. These demos remain unreleased and displayed a sound resembling Guns N' Roses, with the Wildhearts sound still to be developed. Some of the demos were produced by Ric Browde and intended for an EP release that never materialized, though these demos are occasionally found on unofficial releases. In March 1991, Ginger reluctantly took over on lead vocals despite his reservations, as he has never thought himself a good singer.  After many early personnel changes, the line-up solidified around Ginger on guitar and vocals, CJ (Christopher Jagdhar) on guitar and vocals, Danny McCormack on bass and vocals, and Dogs D'Amour drummer Bam. This line-up released two EPs in 1992, Mondo Akimbo a-Go-Go and Don't Be Happy...Just Worry.

Did either do well?

OUT: 


IN: Ashcroft was the only son of office worker Frank and hairdresser Louise (nee Baxter); he also has two younger sisters. His middle name, Paul, is also the name of a paternal uncle. When Ashcroft was 11, his father died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage. Ashcroft soon "fell under the influence of his stepfather", who belonged to the Rosicrucians.

Ashcroft's first solo single, "A Song for the Lovers", peaked at No. 3 in the UK charts in April 2000. It was followed by the single "Money to Burn" which reached the UK Top 20 at No. 17. The album, Alone with Everybody, was released in June, reaching number 1 and receiving platinum status in the UK. Album reviews were generally positive. In September, a third single was released - "C'mon People (We're Making It Now)" - entering the charts at No. 21. Richard does not publish the lyrics to his songs in the inlay cards of his albums or singles as he feels they are personal to him.  Ashcroft began work on his second album Human Conditions in 2002. The lead single, "Check the Meaning", was released in early October, and peaked at No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart. The album was released later that month and reached No. 3 in the UK Album Chart. Reception to the album was generally positive. Review aggregating website Metacritic reports a normalised score of 61% based on 15 reviews. In response to negative reaction to the album, Coldplay's Chris Martin - a fan of both Ashcroft and The Verve - defended the album's merits which "made an impression" on Ashcroft. The appreciation shown would later result in a support slot for Ashcroft, serving as the opening act for Coldplay during a European tour. The album's second single, "Science of Silence", was released the following January and charted at No. 14 in the UK. On 26 March, Ashcroft made his first live appearance of 2003 at London's Royal Albert Hall as part of the third annual Teenage Cancer Trust charity fundraising event, before "Buy It in Bottles", the third and final single to be taken from the album, was released on 7 April, charting at No. 26.  Aside from a limited number of appearances in 2003, Ashcroft was absent from the music business for about two years. He later explained this in 2006, stating that "[e]veryone got it into their heads over the last few years that I was in my ivory tower like Lennon, baking bread all day. The fact of the matter was that I was bringing up kids".

Did he work on any other projects at that time?

OUT:
Aside from a limited number of appearances in 2003, Ashcroft was absent from the music business for about two years.