Touring represents a major chunk of income for major rock acts. In 2010 alone, Metallica earned $110.1 million (€82.2 million) from the activity. Now, instead of playing Europe in 2013, as originally envisaged, they will take a curtailed tour dubbed "European Summer Vacation" in 2012, taking in Norway, Germany, Denmark, England and Austria. The WSJ notes:

With the gloom among investors spreading to richer countries such as France, Mr. [Cliff] Burnstein [Metallica’s manager] is worried that the euro will tank, making it harder for concert promoters in the 17 countries that use the currency to pay Metallica's fees.

Mr Burnstein said –

Over the next few years, the dollar will be stronger and the euro weaker, and if that's the case, I want to take advantage of that by playing more of these [European] shows now, because they will be more profitable for us.

The WSJ adds that The Red Hot Chili Peppers, another group Mr. Burnstein manages, has also brought forward its European plans.

About 75% of the band's revenue comes from touring abroad, Mr. Burnstein said.

Famous for its zealous commitment to correct spelling, FAZ notes that “the first page alone has nine mistakes.” Responding to the ensuing shower of complaints, the editor of the “cocky” publishing house explained in a press release to accompany almost two million published copies that he “has come to accept these mistakes, for economic reasons on the one hand, but then also because literature is not a spelling test.” He also acknowledges that the publishing project was “a good deal”, funded as it was by the European Commission “with a six-figure sum”. For its part, Brussels says it “wants to dig deeper” on the grant issue before responding officially.

De Volkskrant lauds the way in which he popularised poetry: “Vinkenoog was one of the first poets to declaim poetry to a wider audience. Back in 1960 he put out an LP of spoken word poetry. His dramatic delivery and stage presence were his fortes. He was known for his rousing renditions, improvising like a jazzman, twirling and twisting language to a point where he sometimes could not remember what he had said. He called that ‘lingual language’: an artistic manner of expressing oneself without reflecting or pre-selecting."

The “bearded bohemian in jeans” who began his career in Prague theatre Semafor, became popular in the relative freedom of the 1960’s. He continued to sing during the so-called “normalisation” period after the crushed Prague spring of 68, before leaving the country in 1986 for the United States. “Even though his songs were no longer played after this, every Czech knew them by heart,” recalls DNES.