JAMES FAQ - MERCHANDISE
What is the story behind the J-A-M-E-S shirts and the daisy logo?
The James daisy came about when at a London gig in 1988, a fan was spotted in the crowd wearing a home-made t-shirt with the JA - M - ES design hand-drawn on it. The fan was asked backstage and was paid to allow the band to use the design on t-shirts. A while later, manager Martine decided that the t-shirt needed making a little more interesting and, on the spur of the moment, added a daisy to the dot above the J. The shirt became a massive success and a series of shirts based around the daisy and the letter J were produced in 1989 through 1991.
As perhaps the best known symbol of the band, the daisy had a mini-resurrection on some of the shirts on the Whiplash tour before being the obvious choice for the cover of the Best Of. As a result, the daisy has now been used on many t-shirts since including the "James Classic" series that aim to recreate the t-shirt designs of the late 80s and early 90s.