Those of you who can recall when I had a chronological look at all the James 45s might well be familiar with the following few paragraphs as they date from February 2014.
One of my favourite early James singles and the least favourite of the sleeves.
The latter half of 86, all of 87 and early 88 was a strange time to be a James fan. It was also a frustrating time to be in the band, and I’m assuming even more frustrating to be part of the label to which the band had signed.
James were uncompromising in how they wanted to sound, while Sire Records had made it clear that if they didn’t release material that was more commercial or radio-friendly then nothing would ever see the light of day. In early 1987, a new album was recorded, but the label demanded a ‘better’ mix which just wasn’t forthcoming. It really did look for a while as if we had seen the last of the band.
The boys eventually relented and in return the label agreed that they would back a new single which was released in March 1988, a full 18 months after the previous release. It turned out to be a stunning record. Joyous, anthemic and completely radio-friendly. It was surely destined for the Top 10. It even had whistling on it!!
Except……….the record label felt it was still too indie-sounding to be deserving of a promotional push and so again it was left to the late night DJs to try and champion it….but the problem being that the band had been away for too long and nobody was really all that interested.
A crime for which lots of folk should be put in the dock and found guilty.
A 12″ copy of this single sits in the cupboard, so here we go:-
mp3 : James – What For (Climax Mix)
mp3 : James – Island Swing
mp3 : James – Not There
Once again, the b-sides are well worth your attention. Island Swing perhaps suffers from having a wee bit too much in the way of harmonica and the second half of the song doesn’t match the opening minute or so which is quite tremendous, but there can’t be many bands that have done something this jaunty as a dig at the British Empire and other forms of colonialism – while Not There is an alternative and better version of a song that would later appear on the LP Strip-Mine.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Early James is the best period with ‘hit’ after ‘hit’ being snubbed by the majority of the record buying public. They did ok in indie charts, if I recall?
The sleeve of my 7″ copy of What For has been through the wars.
Flimflamfan
Loved the weird-folk-African guitar James of the Factory singles and first two albums. Less enamoured of the later period of anthemic stadium-rave, with lyrics that often embraced a rather bland universal-spiritual pomposity. On the other hand. . . Sometimes was fantastic.
Love this song/ single, very much part of 1988 for me