Six years ago, with a debut album and a Mercury Music Prize
nomination, a cocky Gemma Hayes set off to conquer the world. But
the resulting music "didn't work", and now an older, wiser Hayes is
touring again, and about to release her fine third album. She talks
to
Jim Carroll
This week's announcement by supermarket giant Tesco of a further
move into music retailing provides yet another reason to hope for
the continued existence of local independent record stores.
With their tinted black-and- white photographs and sans-serif
typeset, the album covers from the legendary Blue Note jazz label
are the high- water point in the often neglected world of album
art. In the 1950s and 1960s, album art was almost considered to be
as important as the music.