[no subject]

Rock 'n' roller's singular attack on stealth taxes 
By Judith Woods
(Filed: 23/11/2002) 

Britain's most improbable protest singer is fiddling
with his complicated sound system, so that I can hear
his controversial anti-Gordon Brown anthem.

When Kenney Jones finally hits the play button the
volume is shockingly - painfully - loud. We may be in
a polo club in leafiest Surrey, but this is rock 'n'
roll.

As my sternum jolts uncomfortably with every beat,
Jones, former drummer with the Small Faces and the
Who, nods along with a faraway smile of quiet
satisfaction.

"Na na na na Mr Brown, you're robbing me / You're
detached emotionally / Na na na It's plain to see / Mr
Brown you're robbing me."

It's certainly a catchy tune, but it's the lyrics that
are proving to be incendiary. By sticking his head
above the political parapet on the issue of tax, Jones
has been both feted and castigated in equal measure.

Not only has he been vilified as a Right-wing traitor
to the Leftist traditions of rock, but he has stirred
up something of a parliamentary hornet's nest.

For Jones has dared to wade in where the Tories have
been fearing to tread; namely, on the delicate
minefield of stealth taxation. As the parties squabble
over the high moral ground on public services, the
53-year-old father-of-six has emerged to fight the
corner of the overstretched, overtaxed middle classes.
"The Government isn't listening to the people, and I
felt it was time to speak up," says Jones.

"I just wanted to make the point that this Government
gives with one hand and takes with the other. Every
budget is the same; it sounds as though Gordon Brown
is reducing the burden but, if you look closer, you
discover you're actually worse off."

A stocky man, dressed in scruffy jeans and a T-shirt,
a gold-plated Ebel watch on his wrist, Jones, who owns
and runs Hurtwood Park Polo Club, near Ewhurst, is
instantly recognisable from pictures taken decades
ago.

The youthful face appears remarkably unravaged by
showbiz excess, the hair is still cut in a familiar,
if shorter, hedgehoggy mullet.

Billed as "the quiet one" in most of the bands with
which he played, Jones consistently shied away - once
off-stage - from the limelight. His new song was
written from the heart, he insists, not as an
attention-seeking political statement.

But this, perhaps, is the very reason for its potency.
The issue of taxation may have slipped down the
Opposition agenda but for voters such as him, being
hammered at every turn, it remains a burning issue.

"I've always voted Conservative, but I'm not
politically minded and I just believe in fairness," he
says. "I didn't set out to write a protest song."

He repeats this phrase so often (six times in all,
plus two "Look, this is just a bloody good song that
happens to be about tax"), I get a sense that Jones is
both nonplussed and rather alarmed by the furore.

It was a report in The Telegraph about the German pop
hit, Der Steuersong (The Tax Song), which satirises
Chancellor Gerhard Schroder's tax policies, that
prompted Jones and his band to publicise their song.

The band, which features Robert Hart, a former member
of Bad Company, Rick Wills, the former Foreigner
bassist, and Gary Grainger, guitarist and songwriter,
is as yet unnamed. Mr Brown was intended for their
album, due to be recorded next year, but it clearly
cries out to be released as a single, even though it
could well fall foul of BBC censors for its "definite
political overtones".

"I wrote the song during the fuel protests because
every time I fill up at the petrol station I feel like
I'm being ripped off," says Jones.

"People who live in the country are being penalised
for their fuel consumption, but we have no choice: the
shops aren't at the corner, and you have to get your
children to school, which is miles away."

Jones no longer owns the Flash Harry Ferrari or the
"made-it" Bentley he drove in the 70s. He negotiates
the winding country lanes in a Range Rover and his
wife, Jayne, 43, ferries the children to both state
and independent schools, in a Chrysler Voyager. "I'm
not an extravagant man, and I'm not rolling in cash,
which might sound a bit rich when I'm sitting here in
my polo club, but it's the truth," he says.

"I've earned my money with hard work and rock 'n'
roll. But back in those days bands got ripped off by
all kinds of people. It wasn't like today's instant
millionaires in pre-fabricated pop groups."

He and his family live in a 14th-century, five-bedroom
cottage. The nearby polo club is housed in a renovated
15th-century barn, set in 250 acres.

Regular players include the Prince of Wales, Princes
William and Harry and Jodie Kidd, the model turned
polo player.

Jones has set up The Small Faces charitable trust in
aid of children, providing funds for hospital wards
and other causes.

"I've seen life from both sides. I grew up in the East
End of London, where my father was a lorry driver and
my mother worked in a glass factory," he says.

"It was a very modest upbringing and the only thing I
was spoiled with was love and affection.

"Then when I was 15 or 16 my band had a hit record and
suddenly I saw how the other half lived."

Right now, Jones's main aim is to impress on the
Government how Middle England lives - groaning beneath
a growing tax burden.

It seems likely that his single will be released early
next year, and it will be fascinating to see how it
fares. Jones, meanwhile, is prepared for a further
backlash.

"I not sure Gordon Brown will think much of the song,"
he says. "He'll probably set the Inland Revenue on to
me. But he can if he wants, I can assure him that all
my tax returns are in order."



=====
-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com
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