[kj] OT: Iggy-Luxembourg-Pistols-tax avoidance

[nicholas fitzpatrick]

So I happened to find myself in Luxembourg on Monday night. I got a beer at the hotel bar and went outside as it was a charming European night.


After 5 minutes I heard the raw of a crowd in the distance and music started playing. A few bars in, I thought: "That's 'No Fun'. The Sex Pistols are playing Luxembourg and I didn't know!"


But the singing didn't sound cockney enough, so I was puzzled. Then this band launched into 'I wanna be your dog', and then immediately afterwards into 'Passenger'. So I figured this must be Luxembourg's  most popular covers band with a major penchant for Iggy and a bit for the Pistols. I went back inside and forgot about it.


I had no idea at the time that 'No Fun' was originally an Iggy song.


When I got back home I Googled 'Iggy Pop Luxembourg' and found that he was, indeed, playing there that night and that, forsooth, I had indeed been hearing him. Further inquiries on Wiki led to the world-exclusive finding that 'No Fun' was originally an Iggy song and not a Sex Pistols song.


Fuck, is there no honesty in the world anymore?


Now, what's interesting about this is that Luxembourg is a boring place to live, but they depend on expatriates going to work there. Google and Amazon really need people with the right kind of brains to aid them in tax avoidance. So, to market itself to the world, Luxembourg claims to get really great bands passing through, and to guarantee this (as I vaguely understand it) if a band plays Luxembourg on its world tour, and for legal purposes bases its tour as a company in Luxembourg, it can get tax relief.


Perhaps Iggy was looking to get tax relief on his earnings from advertising a certain car insurance firm; perhaps by playing 'No Fun' first, Johnny Lydon magically gets some tax relief on his earnings from advertising a certain brand of butter.


Ever feel you've been conned?







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