Episode 177: Simon Halfon - Graphic designer and Film Producer on The Style Council, Paul Weller Solo & The Jam
On this episode of The Paul Weller Fan Podcast, we hear from graphic designer and film producer, Simon Halfon to discuss his incredible porfolio of work with The Jam, The Style Council and Paul Weller solo...
We find out about his love of The Jam - and how he first met Paul Weller in 1979 following a gig in Bridlington when he and his mates stayed up with the band drinking and putting the world to rights until the early hours.
On this podcast chat, we hear how he fell into art design by accident via the creation of a fanzine (that provided another early connection to The Jam) to a job in the postroom at Stiff Records, then assisting Neville Brody at The Face magazine.
The first sleeve Simon designed was for Department S, whose singer Vaughn Toulouse became part of a gang of friends that included journalist Paolo Hewitt, DJ Gary Crowley and Siobhan Fahey of Bananarama.
His first commission as a freelancer in 1982, was by Paul Weller through the design on the sleeve for a book that he was publishing about the Small Faces.
When Paul formed The Style Council with Mick Talbot in 1983, it was Simon that he turned to for the record sleeve designs starting with Speak Like a Child, right the way through to the Modernism album cover that was completed for it's ultimate release in the 90s.
We also chat about Simon's creations with Paul Weller for singles and albums for 20 years of the solo career - an incredible collective of work from that first single sleeve from Into Tomorrow in 1991 and those wonderful matchday programmes and merch designs, right through to 2010's Fast Car/Slow Traffic...
Simon also designed every album sleeve with Paul from that debut solo album through to Wake Up The Nation in 2010...
You'll hear about their shared love of The Beatles (which led to Simon designing the cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Milk and Honey album in 1984) and Simon's work with other long standing clients including the late George Michael and Oasis.
In the mid noughties Simon had started to take an interest in the film industry, inspired by friendships forged during his time in LA. He produced his first feature film in 2008, the Kenneth Branagh directed Sleuth, which was to become the last screenplay by Harold Pinter and starred Michael Caine & Jude Law.
But it wasn't until 2016 that Simon really embraced the film world, when the Gallagher brothers approached him to tell the story of Oasis. As lead producer, he brought together the team to create the award winning feature ‘Supersonic’, a documentary of huge commercial and critical success.
We also chat about the incredible Wham documentary for Netflix that he produced - which topped the charts in the summer of 2023...
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EP24 - Ashley Slater - Honorary Councillor (The Style Council) - "You can be all that you want to be..."
EP23 - Jaye Ella-Ruth - Honorary Councillor (The Style Council) - "Keep on diving til I reach the ends"
EP22 - Kevin Miller - Honorary Councillor (The Style Council) - "The gift you gave is desire, The match that started my fire..."
EP21 - Anthony Harty - Honorary Councillor (The Style Council) - "Time here today is life tomorrow"
EP20 - Zeke Manyika - Honorary Councillor (The Style Council) - "Gather every man, Gather every woman..."
EP19 - Hilary Seabrook - Honorary Councillor (The Style Council) - "Peace in my mind, I'm so happy to find"
EP18 - Alan McGee - Music Mogul, Creation Records
EP17 - Pete Paphides - Music Journalist, Radio Host, Vinyl Collector & 'Broken Greek' author - "Flying high, never come down"
EP16 - Dennis Munday - on The Jam, The Style Council & Life at Polydor - "Oh baby I'm dreaming of Monday..."
EP15 - Craig Hassall - CEO - Royal Albert Hall - "Singing high, singing low - Send an arrow to your heart"
EP14 - Trevor Neal - Comedy Legend - "Didn't we have a nice time? Oh wasn't it such a fine time?"
EP13 - James Curran - Absolute Radio & Magic Radio - "When I hear that sound, It goes to my heart..."
EP12 - Nicky Weller (with a Hello from Ann Weller) - About The Young Idea
EP11 - Andy Lewis - Musician, DJ & Producer - ”From Blow Up! to Thunderclouds”
EP10 - Timothy Shepard - 22 Dreams Artist - "And all the pictures on the wall, serve only to remind you of it all"
EP09 - Pat Gilbert - Mojo Collectors Series "Your mojo will have no effect..."
EP08 -Teenage Waitress AKA Daniel J. Ash - Love & Chemicals
EP07 - Ian Snowball - Sounds from the Studio
EP06 - The Magic Mod AKA Ben Taylor
EP05 - Lee Cogswell - Film-Maker, Mono Media Films - Paul Weller & The Style Council
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