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…

Click your preferred podcast platform to listen…

Just In – 12″ prints – Signed, Numbered & Each limited to an edition of 10

You can find prints, signed by Simon, for sale here

Simon & Paul – 2015 – Photo by David Bailey

The Sleeves

Here are just some of the amazing album covers created by Simon Halfon during his career…

The Jam

The Style Council

Some selected design highlights from The Style Council….
In his book Cover to Cover, Simon says “My overriding memory of The Style Council is the way Paul and Mick Talbot went out of their way to make me feel included. It really felt like a little gang.”

Paul Weller Solo

Simon designed every Paul Weller single sleeve from Into Tomorrow in 1991 right through to 2010’s Fast Car/Slow Traffic and album sleeves from the Paul Weller debut solo album in 1992 to Wake Up The Nation in 2010… Below are some selected highights from sleeves, inlays and advertising designs….

The Weaver

I was trying to pick a favourite to highlight on this page and right now I reckon it’s this one.
Simon says that The Beatles were a huge influence again on this one with the background being taken from a photograph of the wheel of John Lennon’s customised psychedelic Rolls-Royce, and the stars were lifting from the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour sleeve…

I also love this one and have this as a giant poster that was posted outside the Royal Albert Hall… I attended all 5 of the concerts at the venue and on the day after the final gig, I called the venue to ask if I could have the poster. Incredibly they still had it!…

Fire & Skill – The Songs of The Jam

It was Simon’s friend Nick Gatfield – then president of Polydor US – who suggested that he put together a tribute album for The Jam. He loved the idea and spent the best part of four years putting it together with cover versions from the likes of Beastie Boys, Gene, Liam Gallagher & Steve Cradock and Reef…

The album Fire & Skill and its lead single Carnation, eventually came out on Ignition Records – the label run by Oasis’ management team. The single went to number 6 and the album went silver.

Supersonic – Oasis Book & Film

Wham Documentary – Simon Halfon – Producer

The summer of 2023 saw the release of the highly anticipated documentary – WHAM! Produced by Simon alongside Academy Award winning film maker John Battsek and directed by multi award winning director Chris Smith. The film charts George and Andrew’s meteoric 4 year journey from leaving school to playing their final gig at Wembley Stadium in 1986. This feature length documentary is released globally by Netflix.

All You Need Is Me – Simon Halfon – Screenwriter

Simon’s first attempt at screenwriting was green-lit.
A comedy drama series, ‘All You Need Is Me’ tells the story of an unsigned indie rock band from London who make it big in the States. The story mirrors Simon’s own time living in LA, where he was pivotal in securing a little known London band a record deal… that band ‘Bush’ went on to sell 8 million copies of their debut album in the US alone.

Simon executive produced the series for ITVX and enlisted feature director Simon Aboud to direct.

He garnered cameos from Fallout Boy’s Pete Wentz, the Libertines’ Carl Barat, Elvis Costello and James Corden and it was shot entirely on location in LA & London.

You can watch on ITVX here…