STONES LEAVE ENGLAND IN TAX ROW. It sounds like a headline out of last week's news, but actually it comes from February 1971 when the Rolling Stones became England's first rock'n roll tax exiles. The list would eventually grow to include David Bowie and Elton John and many others. Recent changes in British tax law seem destined to make exiles out of even more musicians, say representatives of the Spice Girls and Oasis.
Tax problems are yet another example of how history seems to repeat itself for the band. In 1971 the Stones had just finished suing Allen Klein and ABKCO Industries Inc. for mishandling the band's funds. Klein had persuaded the boys to sign their North American song rights to a company called Nanker Phelge Music Inc.
The Stones thought they controlled the company but it was Klein who pulled the strings. The band also launched suits against former managers Andrew Oldham and Eric Easton claiming that they had a secret deal with Decca Records that deprived the band of funds.
Eventually both cases would be decided in the band's favor. In the meantime they had concluded their contract with Decca by delivering the unreleasable "Cocksucker Blues."
At the time when the Daily Telegraph was claiming that the band was worth £83 million they were actually broke. They owed more in taxes than they had been paid by the record company.
On March 13, 1971, Mick Jagger issued a statement the following statement: "Comment, I feel, on behalf of The Rolling Stones should be made on reports which estimate The Rolling Stones' fortune from recordings to be £83,000,000...The sum mentioned is ludicrous; in our opinion it most probably exceeds the collective recording earnings of The Beatles, Elvis Presley, ourselves and others."
In later interviews, former member, Bill Wyman would explain it by saying, "When we left England and went to France, we had no money. On a million dollars you got left with 70,000 and you owed more than that to the tax people. We couldn't win; we had to leave. But then you become bad boys again - you get accused of becoming tax exiles to line your pockets."
On March 30 the Stones held a farewell party at Skindles Hotel in Maidenhead before
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