THE NAME IS REAL, SORT of. People think she changed it when she started working in the music industry, but actually it's her mother's fault, she called her Dilly Dally Daydream when she was a child and the name stuck.

When she arrives to be interviewed, she says she has as much time as I need, even though she's obviously busy. Then she confesses that she can't quite sum up what it is she does for a job either. In fact, she can't even decide what her title is.

Not the strident approach you might expect from someone who has spent ten years working alongside some of Britain's top bands. But it's a crucial difference that has helped Dilly Gent to shine. It's not just that she works on good projects: she's nice to people. And because those working alongside her rather like that, she's been able to carry on doing more and more of what she likes best. A novel technique, granted, but for her it works.

But, she's not too sure about the title: "It's weird - I was trying to work it out and I think I'm a visual fixer," she says. Visual fixing for Gent entails commissioning photography, design and promos for various bands, primarily Radiohead, but also Sparklehorse, Turin Breaks, Simeon, Mansun and Supergrass. She also represents various bands for film soundtracks.

That might not sound too rare, but when Gent is involved, all of the above tends to be of a particularly high standard. There are few bands, for example, that market themselves with as much innovation as Radiohead. All the musicians she works with enjoy the benefit of her flair for spotting talent, for imaginatively teaming the right person, be they photographer, animator or otherwise with the right band, track or project.

Initially, Gent worked as a video producer, "producing not very good music videos and compilations," she confesses dryly. "Bill Tarmey [Jack Duckworth from Coronation Street], Placido Domingo's greatest love songs, the Now That's What I Call Music series... Horrible stuff."

Tiring of the compilation circuit, Gent moved to EMI, where she worked as a video commissioner alongside Tony Wadsworth (now President and CEO of EMI Records Group UK). "I planned to stay for a year" she claims. She stayed for seven, working for numerous mainstream artists including Duran Duran and Tina Turner.

It was at EMI that Gent produced her first promo, for a song called Creep by a little-known band called Radiohead. "I arrived at this place and saw what I worked out to be the band. They hadn't done anything before so they all said 'What do we do?' and I said 'I haven't got a clue.' And we all just stood there."

It was here that Gent made her first aesthetic decision as video commissioner: "The director said 'I want to put sunglasses on Thom Yorke, because he's got a funny eye', and I remember thinking 'But he's gorgeous, why on earth do you want to cover him up?' I realised this was actually my job so I said no and they carried on making the video."

Other promos for Radiohead that she's now not too proud of followed. "Thom at that time decided he wanted to be very creatively involved. God, we made some terrible videos," she jokes. "But that was album one, when it came to album two, The Bends, they got really busy, so it was a case of seeing what others could come up with."

Quite a lot as it happens. Gent sourced a whole host of then-new directors; people who've since moved onto much bigger things, among them Jamie Thraves (Just), Jonathan Glazer (Street Spirit and Karma Police), Grant Gee (No Surprises plus the documentary Meeting People Is Easy, which Gent produced) and Sophie Muller (Sick of Goodbyes, Pig and Saint Mary, all for Sparklehorse).

Gent pins much of the success of these and other promos on trust. "My job is to fix people up, to research the talent and then the personality of that person. If I find they fit, then I let it go. I never understand why commissioners of any sort, be it photography, design, video, feel that they should be there saying 'do this, change that?' I'm paying a lot of money for that person to do that job. If I could do that job better myself, then I'd be doing it."

Gent got Dom&Nic on board to shoot Late In The Day for Supergrass: "I'm working with this new band and I'm told the brother of the drummer wants to be a video director," she sighs. "Any commissioner would say 'okay, I'll just go and throw myself under the next moving truck'." But she gave them a chance: "They came with the most beautiful frame-by-frame storyboard for the entire shoot. This whole budget was about 12 grand, but I couldn't believe it when I saw the finished piece. It was obvious that they had a massive talent."

Radiohead are particularly vigilant about how they are represented visually, but according to Gent, she and Yorke agree on most aspects. Yorke's not her only sounding post though. Gent believes that her best decision-making for any band is based on gut instinct. Bands and management who allow her to act on this are the ones for whom she does the best work. "You can never explain it, but it's in your gut when something doesn't feel right... Everything I commission is always about feeling."

Her clients don't seem to find this a risky barometer either.

Says Courtyard [Radiohead and Supergrass management company] co-manager Chris Hufford: "She's very good with people, and her communication skills with artists are brilliant, she's just very good at understanding where they're coming from. That's difficult if you're on the fence benween creativity and business as commissioners tend to be. She treads a very good line."

But that's only one aspect of the job. Keeping up to date with the latest directors, and knowing what, aesthetically, is going to match is paramount. "There is no technique to finding people - I'm really bad at going to short film festivals or exhibitions. But I think if you put yourself out there enough, then things come to you..." she says. "You meet people, or have them stored in the back of your head, then pull them out for different jobs. I very rarely look at a showreel and think 'that's the right person' and use them then." Says Hufford: "She won't just go for the big director, but for the director that suits where the band is at the particular time". Indeed, Gent and Radiohead rejected the whole concept of the pop video when it came to the album Kid A, opting instead for animated "blipverts" from animators Shynola and Chris Bran (CR, Sept, 2000).

"It isn't about how big a cheque you write, but about the originality of thinking behind music and video," says EMI Tony Wadsworth.. "Dilly finds it very easy to strike up a good relationship between artists and directors and creates a bridge between the two. Personality helps you communicate, but it's what you communicate that's important as well."

Mentioning her name brings glowing reports, from musicians, management, directors and record companies. This is what Thom Yorke wrote back when aked for his opinion on Diliy Gent: "I like Dilly because... she does not suffer fools. She is very nice to anybody who has talent. She knows what talent is. She tastes good with cornflakes. It is easy to talk to her. We have... an understanding."

Captions:

1&2. Shynola's promo for Pyramid Song, the first single from Radiohead's new album, Amnesiac. For the band's previous album, Kid A, Gent commissioned a series of "blipverts" instead of promos. "I felt totally uninspired by music videos generally, I didn't want to do it, even for Radiohead. Then l went to meet up with them, and Thom was saying 'I don't want to do music videos either' and I thought thank God," says Gent. The blipverts ran in ad breaks. Shown, 3 to 5, are three by Shynola, Chris Bran also directed several

1. Saint Mary, 2, Pig, both for Sparklehorse and directed by Sophie Muller. 3&4. Multi-coloured, long-limbed fun with Pumpin' On Your Stereo promo for Supergrass, shot by Garth Jennings at Hammer&Tongs, with a little help from the puppeteers of Jim Henson's Creature Shop. 5&6. Meeting People Is Easy, Grant Gee's Radiohead documentary commissioned and produced by Dilly Gent. 7-9. Street Spirit, also by Radiohead, directed by Jonathan Glazer at Academy