Arctic Monkeys: from men of the people to tax-dodgers

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/jul/11/arctic-monkeys-tax-avoidance-liberty

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There was a beautifully serendipitous irony to the timing of the revelations that a number of high-profile British musicians, including Arctic Monkeys, had been using a tax-avoidance scheme called Liberty to shield their money from the Inland Revenue by stashing it away in Jersey. When the story broke yesterday, thousands of teachers, firefighters, council staff and other public sector workers were on strike to defend the services for which taxation, in one form or another, pays.

There is, of course, a long history of entertainers bitching about contributing to the common purse. The best-known example is the Beatles' Taxman, wherein George Harrison gracelessly complained about the Wilson government's fiscal policy at the same time that he was consorting with Hindu gurus and urging his followers abandon materialism. Harrison, at least, had the decency to make his hypocritical stance public. The same can't be said for this week's blushing celebrity faces.

Criticism should especially apply to the Arctic Monkeys – whose members have sheltered up to £1.1m in the Channel Islands – as they've long traded on their image as a band of the people, with Turner cast as a working-class hero, a snotty, sharp-minded northern kid in the mould of the young Lennon, cutting through the bullshit and telling it like it is. They could do with a reminder of just how much they owe to the state they're so reluctant to fund. Singer Alex Turner may have ascended to the elite, dating models and living the high life, but taxation paid for the hospital where he was born, the school where he was educated and the schools which paid his (teacher) parents' wages, the street lamps that lit his way home from rehearsals, and the benefits that sustained his bandmates when they were out of work.

Their shtick reached a peak at this year's Brit awards, when in an incoherent and semi-nonsensical speech, he posed as the plucky underdog, arguing that rock'n'roll was a force of rebellion that could still smash through the "glass ceiling" keeping it down (ironically, if anyone could afford a glass ceiling, of purest Ravenscroft crystal, it was Turner). For this, he was celebrated by the NME with an unintentionally hilarious call-to-arms cover, depicting Turner as a latterday Kitchener with the headline "Rock'N'Roll Needs You". The same NME, a week later, gave a Villain of the Year award to One Direction's Harry Styles. Styles, interestingly, had actually spoken out on tax avoidance, urging the chancellor to crack down on loopholes, while Turner & co were happily diverting their dollars into exactly such an enterprise. Sadly, so was Styles: it soon emerged that 1D themselves were channeling their cash through holding companies in Ireland to avoid UK tax.

Perhaps the poor sap didn't know. Anyone can make a mistake. Katie Melua, who was once given a Tax Superhero Award by Christian Aid after claiming to have paid "nearly half of what comes to me in taxes", was reportedly mortified once she discovered that £850,000 of her money had been put into Liberty, and – her spokespeople assure us – immediately paid it back.

With other culprits, there's a sense of "Well, what did we expect?" No one, surely, is particularly surprised to hear of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Anne Robinson, Gary Barlow or Michael Caine shielding their wealth in offshore schemes. Some names, however, are a little disappointing. Mark Knopfler, for example, who once wrote a Dire Straits song about the Battle of Orgreave from the point of view of the miners. Or George Michael, whose first hit with Wham! was a subversive celebration of life on benefits, but who now uses the Liberty scheme and says, "I would feel feel enormously unhappy about paying 50% tax to another Tory government." (Most of us, George, don't get to choose, except via the ballot box.)

Fan reaction to the Arctic Monkeys furore has been mixed, but the temptation to snarkily quote lyrics has proven irresistible: "What a scummy man/ Just give him half a chance, I bet he'll rob you if he can." That song, of course, was a bleak piece of social realism about prostitution on the streets of Sheffield, a city in which the band exhibit a great deal of civic pride: they introduce themselves on stage as "The Arctic Monkeys, from High Green, Sheffield", and the area telephone prefix 0114 is printed on Matt Helders' drumhead. If they really cared about their hometown, they could always consider what that £1m could do for a city in which the number of people using food banks has almost doubled in the last 12 months, instead of leaving it to gather dust in Jersey.

The usually mouthy Alex Turner has, so far, declined to comment. And why, his defenders will argue, should he? Arctic Monkeys haven't done anything illegal (although the Liberty scheme is being challenged by HMRC). But next time Turner's cruising the old neighbourhoods for songwriting inspiration, perhaps he'll remember what taxation did for him – for all of us – and do the decent thing: give it back.