1969–1970: Transition to live music event promotion By the late 1960s, found himself without "one penny" in his pocket. An individual asked him for help promoting musicians such as
Eric Clapton and
Wilson Pickett, putting up posters for concerts in town, managing tickets and setting up the equipment. Ellie Weinert of
Billboard wrote that 's experiences as a band member and journalist "proved to be major assets" when he shifted to a concert promoter. The name of the company Mama Concerts was formed by combining the first syllable of 's and 's first names. and then organised the first
British Rock Meeting festival in September 1971 in , Germany. It was inspired by the model of the American festival and featured
Black Sabbath,
Fleetwood Mac and
Rod Stewart. It featured, among others,
the Doors,
Faces and Pink Floyd. 's work in the early 1970s was recognised for bringing international bands and leading rock acts to German stages. during his concert tour in West Germany organised by Mama Concerts. Sinatra began this 1975 tour in
Munich and then , where he performed in half-empty halls. His next concert at the in West Berlin was therefore cancelled. His German tour thus ended, with stating in 1975 that Sinatra nevertheless earned about 30,000 Deutsche Marks per concert. German newspapers had predicted the financial ruin of 's company, but he denied this claim. 's said that he "wrote pop history with the band". Open-air festivals were not widely regarded favourably at the time. The Ministry of the Interior sought profitable uses for the state-owned property and had an idea for a music festival, which led Lieberberg to seize the opportunity. In 1985, wanted to bring to the German region of the () the atmosphere that reigned in the American town of
Bethel during the first
Woodstock music festival. He decided to launch a festival, and the 1972 British Rock Meeting would serve as a model. and his collaborators had learned lessons from Woodstock's "chaotic conditions" and the "serious errors" in Monterey , each of which, he said, was due to a precarious "foundation" and "structure" unsuited to large crowds. , the first managing director of the newly fashioned complex, placed his trust in him. The inaugural edition of drew a crowd of nearly 80,000 attendees and featured performances by
Foreigner, ,
Joe Cocker, and
U2. while went to work with . specified tours they handled:
Falco in Europe and Japan, as well as
Nena in Holland, Scandinavia, the UK, and Japan. He cited
Tori Amos and Mark Cohen as examples of emerging artists whom he placed great emphasis on stage personality and musical originality, noting that US acts depended more on their own videos and
MTV to present themselves than European ones. As a charity festival, was organised to protest against Germany's right-wing extremist violence. In 1995, he stated that they were active throughout Europe, and had already presented Aerosmith,
Guns N' Roses,
Metallica and
Sting in Israel. Other concerts had handled since then included those of
Annie Lennox,
Bee Gees,
Billy Joel,
Bob Geldof,
Bon Jovi,
Bryan Ferry,
Bruce Springsteen,
Cat Stevens,
Chris Rea,
Depeche Mode,
Dire Straits,
Elton John, Pink Floyd,
R.E.M.,
Simply Red, Sting, U2, and
ZZ Top. succeeded in this position at the agency.
Career progression was the ticketing partner working in collaboration with
CTS Eventim. As part of a strategy to establish its website as a premier European event portal, CTS Eventim took a stake in MLK, effective 1 July 2000. 's 1991 concept for proved effective, enabling the festival to grow; the 2000 edition attracted more than double the number of spectators as the 1988 edition.
MTV Europe (MTVE) collaborated with MLK to showcase numerous local musicians performing live around during the
2001 MTV Europe Music Awards, which took place in the city. On 7 December 2004, the regional court of ordered MLK to pay (equivalent to in 2004) in compensation to a 38-year-old woman who said she suffered from
tinnitus after standing about 3 to 5 metres from a loudspeaker during a Bon Jovi concert in September 2000. The court validated the plaintiff's assertion that the concert organiser failed to implement adequate precautions to ensure that the sound volume remained at a safe level. stated that the "decision was 'very dubious and "a perfect scenario" that could be exploited by anyone claiming harm and seeking compensation for "pain and suffering" through lawsuits. , 2005, organised by was the organiser of the
Live 8 concert in Berlin, which took place in July 2005. It was part of
Live 8, a series of
benefit concerts held in multiple cities worldwide aimed at raising awareness of
poverty in Africa. He organised Berlin's Live 8 concert for his longtime friend Geldof. The lack of support from politicians and business sponsors had dismayed a month earlier, and he viewed it as a failure that would have a financial impact on the bands performing at the concert, who would have to pay for the show themselves.
Bryan Adams, , , Sting, Depeche Mode, as well as R.E.M.'s
Michael Stipe and
Mike Mills, were among 's clients who showed their appreciation on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday on 7 May 2006. In 2006, MLK ranked seventh worldwide after selling more than a million tickets in the first half of that year. On revenues of million, a profit of million was achieved. organised Madonna's performances in and in August 2006 as part of her
Confessions Tour. In September 2006, of
Der Spiegel wrote that a Madonna concert earned . In April 2007, he presented four concerts in Germany of
The Dark Side of the Moon Live by Pink Floyd's
Roger Waters. He handled the concerts of
the Cranberries'
Dolores O'Riordan in June 2007 at Berlin's Columbia Club and
Cologne's
Gloria, as part of her European tour in support of her debut solo album,
Are You Listening? , based in , won Tour Promoter of the Year 2007 at Germany's annual , held at the
Colour Line Arena in . Some musicians whose concerts he promoted that year included Springsteen,
Nelly Furtado,
the Police and
Shakira. He refused the award because his had not won Best Festival. In 2009, was awarded two Live Entertainment Awards in : Concert Promoter of the Year and Festival of the Year for his two open-air festivals, and . In 2009, he had been the promoter for all Joel's German tours since the late 1970s. MLK promoted Depeche Mode's German concerts for the 2009
Tour of the Universe. took legal action against the secondary ticket market, specifically the Internet ticket portal Ventic, for offering inflated ticket prices for this Depeche Mode tour. The Dutch company Smartfox Media, which operated Ventic's German service, acquired tickets through both the MLK distribution system and third parties. The Munich District Court then prohibited Ventic from trading indirectly purchased concert tickets for a specific leg of the German tour, from 2 to 13 June 2009. While was confident he had won the legal battle, the
interim injunction was cancelled "in some key points and limited to very specific tickets", said ,
chief executive officer (CEO) of Smartfox Media, adding, "although these no longer play a role in practise".
Further developments In 2010, he won the Live Entertainment Award as Tour Promoter of the Year. The previous year, he presented
Coldplay, Green Day,
Linkin Park, U2, and
Xavier Naidoo through his company, MLK. In June 2010, of described as "the most successful concert promoter in Europe". In 2010, the festival was "practically still a family business", managing a budget in the millions and employing about 500 people at peak times. The last 25 years saw host 1,300 bands. 's company and Wizard Promotions teamed up to bring the "Big Four" of
thrash metal, comprising Metallica,
Megadeth,
Slayer and
Anthrax, for a joint concert on 2 July 2011, with the bands performing to a crowd of 57,000 at the sold-out
Veltins Arena in . MLK had a history of partnering with Live Nation in Europe on global tours for Madonna,
Rihanna,
Justin Timberlake and U2. Deviating from his established rock music routine, he was involved in the electronic music festival for two years. founded , a one-day music festival that premiered on 25 August 2012 at the Veltins Arena in . Planned to be an annual event taking place in , the first featured
Red Hot Chili Peppers,
Placebo, , along with , who worked for MLK, 's 2013 festival featured
Biffy Clyro,
Casper,
Deftones,
System Of A Down,
Tenacious D, and
Volbeat. In 2013, he handled Waters'
The Wall concerts on 4 September at the
Olympic Stadium in Berlin and on 6 September at the
Esprit Arena in . In 2014, the
European Festivals Awards gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award. initially demanded a larger share of the 's profits, amounting to approximately , which deemed unfeasible. As a result, Capricorn terminated 's contract and entered into a partnership with , CEO of . With musicians and fans pledging their loyalty, staged what was then the final at the in June 2014. The city of was in talks with in 2014, as he planned to relocate his to the
former NATO headquarters at . would be replaced by another music festival at the racetrack from 2015, the , organised by . collaborated with Live Nation and
Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to bring
Ariana Grande's
The Honeymoon Tour to Berlin and Cologne in May and June 2015, as part of her first German tour. Elsa Keslassy of
Variety described MLK as Germany's "leading concert promoter". Musicians whom brought to Germany over the years and promoted through MLK, who were able to establish their international careers in the country, included
Bob Dylan, , Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Joel, Linkin Park,
Mark Knopfler, Madonna, Metallica,
Queen, R.E.M.,
Santana, Springsteen, and Sting. He also promoted national acts such as , , Overall, is the CEO of Live Nation Germany, Switzerland, and Austria (Live Nation GSA). While the festival was on hiatus, organised , the "little brother" of , via MLK. He invited Linkin Park as headliner for the first festival, as well as various bands such as Kraftklub, and they performed for 25,500 people in September 2015 at the Esprit Arena in . In November 2015, was the promoter of Madonna's
Rebel Heart Tour in Germany, at Cologne's
Lanxess Arena and Berlin's
Mercedes-Benz Arena. He remained the head of the organisers of the and festivals in 2016. At this edition, concerts were interrupted for about an hour and a half, as lightning injured 71 people, and 42 others were hospitalised, eight of them seriously. undertook measures to manage the situation as 90,000 people were present on site. The same scenario had occurred the previous year, with 33 injured. In June 2017, of wrote that throughout his career, organised "the better part of this republic's soundtrackand that is his rebellion". He criticised the police's decision to evacuate the nearly 90,000 people attending the 2017 festival, which had been temporarily shut down due to a
potential terror threat. The police were already present at the festival, having significantly augmented security following the
terror attack in Manchester, deploying more than 1,200 officers in the field. On 23 June 2017, received the Plaque of Honour of the City of , which was awarded to him by
Mayor . The ceremony took place in the of 's in the presence of and his wife. said this distinction was given for his "commitment to rock and pop music", noting that he advocated
philanthropy and took a stand against xenophobia and racism. In November 2018, was nominated for the Live Entertainment Award for
Beyoncé's
Formation World Tour and Coldplay's
A Head Full of Dreams Tour, with the ceremony taking place in April of the following year at the . MLK was nominated for Concert of the Year for
Adele at the
Barclaycard Arena in . German event organisers tested the resumption of small-scale concerts during the
coronavirus pandemic while adhering to strict measures. However, created agitation with Live Nation Germany, which announced the first major two-and-a-half-hour concert in Germany scheduled for 4 September 2020, at 's
Merkur Arena, limited to capacity, with performances by Adams,
Sarah Connor and
Rea Garvey. 's Give Live a Chance event sought to demonstrate the feasibility of large-scale concerts during a pandemic by offering "hope" to the music industry and setting a "positive example". During the pandemic, CTS Eventim founded its subsidiary, Dreamhaus, headed by , and subsequently took total control of the festival.
After departing the twin festivals 2022 marked the end of 's involvement in the and festivals; Rolling Loud Germany 2023, organised by Live Nation Germany and Entertainment Group, featured
Kendrick Lamar,
Travis Scott,
Wizkid and other rappers. According to the police, the festival's "overall vibe" appeared "remarkably aggressive" with individuals strewing stones at security staff, resulting in 800 incidents, including 27 hospitalisations. attributed the problems encountered to a minority of individuals, out of the 60,000 people present, but noted that they could develop the security concept further for the next edition. He said Adele in Munich was "the most extensive project in my 50 years in the music business". In April 2024, he was included in
Billboards International Power Players list in the Live category for "executives who are driving success outside the United States" and have "contributed to a ninth consecutive year of growth for the global recorded-music business". He and oversee Goodlive, a Live Nation-owned company that presents ten festivals in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. After Naidoo's four-year absence following his controversial remarks and conduct, organised, via Live Nation , his "big comeback concert", on 16 December 2025, at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne. of
Rolling Stone Germany wrote that "has never let his drop". ==Career in other event sectors==