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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EP141 - Pete Mason - Record Exec Producer of Days of Speed + Go! Discs and Independiente
EP140 - Steve Barron - Filmmaker - The Jam Music Promos & more...
EP139 - Magic: A Journal of Song - Podcast Special with Dylan Jones…
EP138 - Barry Cain - Journalist, Publisher & PR Man - Record Mirror, FlexiPop!, Punk, The Jam, Paul Weller, and more...
EP137 - Jamie Johnson - Sound Engineer - Paul Weller Solo Years
EP136 - Darren Fletcher - The Style Councillors
EP135 - Andy Rosen, Music Photographer, The Jam
EP134 - Nick Heyward - Haircut One Hundred
EP133 - Souad Massi, Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Paul Weller Collaboration - Let Me Be In Peace
EP132 - Richard Houghton, Author - The Jam - The Day I Was There
EP131 - Christopher Holland - Keyboards, Singer, Songwriter, Heliocentric Tour
EP130 - Stewart Prosser - The Style Council - Honorary Councillor - Brass musician and Arranger...
EP129 - Virginia Turbett - Music & Social Reportage photographer...
EP128 - Terry Edwards - Musician (Sax, Trumpet, Guitar, Keyboards, Flute) + Singer / Songwriter + Wake Up The Nation
EP127 - Bill Wheeler - Tour Manager, Paul Weller HQ
EP126 - Jill Furmanovsky - Multi-Award-Winning Music Photographer - RockArchive.com
EP125 - Helen Turner - Musician - Honorary Councillor / Paul Weller Solo
EP124 - Simon Fowler - Ocean Colour Scene - Singer & Songwriter
EP123 - Edgar Jones - Singer, Songwriter, Musician - Paul Weller Live Band Bass Player
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