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Marek Lieberberg
German-Jewish concert promoter (born 1946) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Marek Lieberberg (born 7 May 1946) is a German promoter,[1] best known for founding the Rock am Ring music festival. He is Germany's largest and most influential concert promoter, having brought major international acts to perform in the country throughout his career.
Lieberberg was born in Frankfurt am Main and grew up in the post-war city. After attending an English school, he studied at the University of Frankfurt and then trained as a journalist. Lieberberg became a current affairs editor and reporter for the Associated Press in Germany. His career took a different path, and he co-founded the agency Mama Concerts in 1970, debuting as a promoter by organising a concert by the Who. Lieberberg co-organised the inaugural British Rock Meeting in 1971 and the subsequent 1972 edition. In 1985, Lieberberg founded the Rock am Ring festival on a portion of the Nürburgring motorsports complex. The following year saw the conclusion of his association with Mama Concerts.
Lieberberg founded his concert agency, Marek Lieberberg Konzertagentur (MLK), in 1987, which evolved into Germany's leading live music promoter. He was the talent manager of Ute Lemper from the late 1980s until the early 1990s. Lieberberg sought to establish MLK in Hawaii in the 1990s, where he presented international acts to audiences. He organised the Live 8 concert in Berlin in 2005. Lieberberg was responsible for the first introduction of WWE and UFC events in Germany in 2006 and 2009, respectively. He founded Rock im Pott and went on to organise Rock'n'Heim and Rock im Sektor, three German music festivals. In 2015, Live Nation Entertainment named Lieberberg CEO of Live Nation in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria (Live Nation GSA). His involvement in the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals ceased in 2022, after serving as head of the organisers. Lieberberg was one of the promoters of the concert residency titled Adele in Munich in 2024. During his career, he produced, organised and presented musical productions, as well as Cirque du Soleil shows, for German, Austrian and Tel Aviv audiences.
Lieberberg was also a member of the band the Rangers. His career was characterised by a firm stand against xenophobia and racism, exemplified by his organisation of the Heute die! Morgen Du! music festival in 1992. In 2014, the European Festivals Awards gave him the Lifetime Achievement Award. Lieberberg received the Plaque of Honour from the City of Frankfurt in 2017.
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Early life
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Early years and journalism debut
Marek Lieberberg, the child of Polish Holocaust survivors,[2][3] was born on 7 May 1946,[4] in the Jewish Zeilsheim displaced persons (DP) camp.[3][5] Zeilsheim is an industrial suburb of Frankfurt am Main.[6] In his family, only his parents survived World War II. His two sisters had died of starvation during the war, and the Nazis had exterminated the rest of his family.[7][8]
After obtaining the appropriate license from the American occupation authorities, his father produced chocolate and subsequently ran a coffee roastery. His mother, however, squandered away money earned by gambling. Lieberberg, who described his parents as "broken", grew up in post-war Frankfurt.[5]
His parents' ethnic identity was intentionally indistinguishable in their lives; he was therefore enrolled in a boarding school in England to learn more about Jewish history.[5] Lieberberg lived in London at the time of the Rolling Stones' founding.[9] He has a brother named David.[10] His early musical interests emerged at the age of 16, which led him to form a rock band.[11]
Lieberberg studied sociology at the University of Frankfurt for a year, where he became involved in left-wing political circles, a characteristic trait of young Jews in the 1960s and 1970s.[5] It was during the era of the Frankfurt School.[8] He deemed this period politically "important" but also "stupid and dangerous", citing the Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (SDS), whose members rebuked those with differing opinions, which displeased him greatly. Lieberberg disagreed with the way the SDS had repressed [Theodor W.] Adorno in Frankfurt.[7] Lieberberg said that the SDS's "most gifted orators" were Karl Dietrich Wolff and Hans-Jürgen Krahl, whom he called "Jacobins" when they were at the University of Frankfurt. He further said that these two "made everyone's life hell". The "zeal" with which Wolff and Krahl confronted dissenters, even those who expressed scepticism, frightened Lieberberg in a context where mass student protests were useless to him. Lieberberg fled the SDS.[9]
Lieberberg trained as a news journalist.[4] He became a journalist for the Associated Press (AP).[12][13] Lieberberg was AP's current affairs editor in Berlin and Bonn.[11][12] As a reporter, he occasionally wrote about the music scene[11] around 1968. The realm of music impressed him as much as literature and theatre.[7]
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Concert promotion career
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Transition to live music event promotion
By the late 1960s, Lieberberg 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.[11] Lieberberg transitioned from journalist to concert promoter in the late 1960s.[12] In 1969, he organised the "first open-air" event at Frankfurt's velodrome stadium, two years after the Summer of Love, Lieberberg said.[14] Ellie Weinert of Billboard wrote that Lieberberg's experiences as a band member and journalist "proved to be major assets" when he shifted to a concert promoter.[12]
Mama Concerts
Lieberberg and his business partner Marcel Avram founded their concert agency Mama Concerts in 1970.[2][12][15] The name of the company Mama Concerts was formed by combining the first syllable of Lieberberg's and Avram's first names.[12] At the age of 24, in 1970, he was responsible for organising his first concert, that of the Who in Münster.[2][15] One of his promoter duties was to drive his old Volkswagen (VW) car in front of the Who's bus to secure the band's arrival times in each city.[11] In the same year, Lieberberg organised Deep Purple's first German tour.[12]
Lieberberg and Avram then organised the first British Rock Meeting festival in September 1971 in Speyer, Germany. It was inspired by the model of the American festival and featured Black Sabbath, Fleetwood Mac and Rod Stewart.[15]
Along with Deep Purple's manager, John Coletta, Lieberberg signed the contract for the band's 1972 German concerts on a paper tablecloth in an outdoor restaurant on Mendelssohnstraße in Frankfurt.[7] In 1972, Lieberberg and Avram organised the second edition of the British Rock Meeting on an island near Germersheim, which attracted an audience of 100,000 people.[15][16] It featured, among others, the Doors, Faces and Pink Floyd.[15] Anja Perkuhn of Süddeutsche Zeitung called the 1972 British Rock Meeting "the mother of all German rock festivals".[17] Lieberberg's work in the early 1970s was recognised for bringing international bands and leading rock acts to German stages.[5]
Inception of Rock am Ring
It had been almost a decade since a major open-air festival had taken place in Germany, despite some failed attempts at amateur events. The press and politicians denigrated this type of event.[18] Open-air festivals were not widely regarded favourably at the time.[19] In 1980, Lieberberg attempted to organise a festival on the Schwalbenschwanz portion of the Nordschleife at the Nürburgring motorsports complex near Herresbach. However, the project ultimately failed due to protests from nearby residents and a lack of parking spaces.[14]
The Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of the Interior sought profitable uses for the state-owned Nürburgring property and had an idea for a festival, which led Lieberberg to seize the opportunity.[15] In 1985, Lieberberg wanted to bring to the German region of the Palatinate (Pfalz) the atmosphere that reigned in the American town of Bethel during the first Woodstock festival.[20] He decided to launch a festival, and the 1972 British Rock Meeting would serve as a model. Lieberberg and his collaborators had learned lessons from Woodstock's "chaotic conditions" and the "serious errors" of the Monterey Festival. Rainer Mertel, the first managing director of the newly fashioned Nürburgring complex, placed his trust in him.[18] Thus, Lieberberg founded the Rock am Ring festival in 1985.[15][20][21]
The inaugural edition of Rock am Ring featured performances by Foreigner, Gianna Nannini, Joe Cocker, Marius Müller-Westernhagen, and U2.[15] Max Sprick of Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote that songs like "Goldener Reiter", [Hubert Kah's] "Sternenhimmel" and "99 Luftballons" were not lasting hits in the mid-1980s, just as the "massively commercialised" Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW) genre was becoming overused and losing its importance. Sprick felt that for this reason, Lieberberg had favoured international "top acts" for his festival project.[19]
Marek Lieberberg Konzertagentur
For 16 years, Lieberberg headed the Frankfurt office of Mama Concerts.[11] Following an argument, he and Avram ended their partnership in 1986.[7][12]
In 1987, he founded Marek Lieberberg Konzertagentur (MLK) (lit. 'Marek Lieberberg Concert Agency').[13] Lieberberg formed a new business partnership with Ossy Hoppe, while Avram began working with Fritz Rau.[a][12] Lieberberg and Avram would reconcile later.[7]
Business expansion
Lieberberg returned in 1991 with a revised concept for the Rock am Ring festival,[b] incorporating more stages, events, and rock music.[19] In 1991, Lieberberg was a founding member of an alliance, the European Concert Promoters Association.[12]
Lieberberg, opposed to the Hoyerswerda and Rostock-Lichtenhagen riots and the violence in Mölln, organised Heute die! Morgen Du! in December 1992 at the Frankfurt Messehalle.[2][3] Kate Brady of Deutsche Welle called the Rostock attacks "the worst right-wing violence in Germany since the Second World War".[25] As a charity festival,[26] Heute die! Morgen Du! was organised to protest against Germany's right-wing extremists.[2] The 1992 impromptu event featured some of the country's best-known musicians, with 16 channels broadcasting the event.[12] Heute die! Morgen Du! drew a crowd of 150,000,[2] with Müller-Westernhagen among the musicians who performed.[26]
After serving on the European Concert Promoters Association's board for two years, he felt that the 50-promoter organisation was not large enough and therefore hoped that it would expand in the future to play a decisive role in European policy.[12]
In 1995, he stated that they were active throughout Europe, and had already presented bands such as Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses, Metallica, as well as Sting in Israel. Other concerts Lieberberg had handled since then included those of Annie Lennox, Bee Gees, Billy Joel, Bob Geldof, Bon Jovi, Brian Ferry, Bruce Springsteen, Cat Stevens, Chris Rea, Depeche Mode, Dire Straits, Elton John, as well as Pink Floyd, R.E.M., Simply Red, Sting, U2, and ZZ Top.[12]
Operations in Hawaii
In the late 1990s, Lieberberg wanted to expand his promotion business in Hawaii, saying, "I am looking at being the No. 1 promoter in this market". Tim Ryan of Honolulu Star-Bulletin said Lieberberg was "feeling pretty voracious" about the prospect of future concerts in Hawaii. In 1997, he was responsible for Bush's concerts in Oahu and Maui. Lieberberg conducted his European business operations from Hawaii at the time.[11]
In February 1998, Lieberberg brought Céline Dion to the Blaisdell Arena for two sold-out performances.[11] In 1998, his oldest son, Daniel, began working as a booker and talent buyer for his company, MLK.[27][28] Hoppe, who was MLK's managing director, and Lieberberg parted ways by mutual agreement at the end of 1998, but continued to collaborate on projects involving various artists. Annelu Keggenhoff succeeded Hoppe in this position at the agency.[29]
Lieberberg reported the occurrence of 450 events during 1999, which had generated attendances exceeding 2 million people, with a financial report indicating a revenue of 120 million Deutsche Marks (US$60 million in 2000) for that year.[30]
Career progression
Lieberberg was the ticketing partner working in collaboration with CTS Eventim.[1] As part of a strategy to establish its website as a premier event portal, CTS Eventim took a 51% stake in MLK, effective 1 July 2000.[30] Lieberberg told Norbert Obkircher of MusikWoche that CTS Eventim had submitted "the best offer" to him, allowing them to improve and expand the quality of their activities at the "European level".[31] Lieberberg's 1991 concept proved effective, allowing the Rock am Ring festival to grow; the 2000 edition attracted more than double the number of spectators as the 1988 edition.[19]
Lieberberg, who had known Madonna since the early 1980s,[7] was her concert manager in Germany during her 2001 Drowned World Tour.[32][33] MTV Europe (MTVE) worked with MLK to showcase numerous local musicians performing live around Frankfurt during the 2001 MTV Europe Music Awards, which were held in the city.[34]
His son Daniel left MLK in 2002 to work as a marketing director at Universal Music.[27]
Lieberberg was the organiser of the Live 8 concert in Berlin 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.[35][36] He organised Berlin's Live 8 concert for his longtime friend Geldof.[37] More than 100,000 attendees participated in the event held on Berlin's central avenue.[38]
Bryan Adams, Michael Bublé, Dion, Sting, Depeche Mode, as well as R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and Mike Mills, were among Lieberberg's clients who showed their appreciation on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday on 7 May 2006.[27] In 2006, MLK ranked seventh worldwide after selling more than a million tickets in the first half of that year. On revenues of €100 million, a profit of €7 million was achieved.[39] Lieberberg organised Madonna's performances in Düsseldorf and Hanover in August 2006 as part of her Confessions Tour.[40] In September 2006, Thomas Schulz of Der Spiegel wrote that a Madonna concert earned Lieberberg $50,000.[39] In 2006, Lieberberg and Live Nation jointly organised the German dates of Christina Aguilera's Back to Basics Tour.[41][42]
In April 2007, he presented four concerts in Germany of The Dark Side of the Moon Live by Pink Floyd's Roger Waters.[43] 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?[44] Lieberberg, based in Frankfurt, won Tour Promoter of the Year 2007 at the annual Live Entertainment Award (LEA), held at the Color Line Arena in Hamburg. Some musicians whose concerts he promoted that year included Springsteen, Nelly Furtado, the Police and Shakira.[45]
Madonna's Sticky & Sweet Tour stopped in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt in 2008, with concerts organised by MLK.[46]
Further development
In 2009, Lieberberg was awarded two Live Entertainment Awards in Hamburg: Concert Promoter of the Year and Festival of the Year for his two open-air festivals, Rock am Ring and Rock im Park.[47] In 2009, he had been the promoter for all Joel's German tours since the late 1970s.[48] MLK promoted Depeche Mode's German concerts for the 2009 Tour of the Universe. Lieberberg 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.[49] While Lieberberg was confident he had won the legal battle, the interim injunction was cancelled "in some key points and limited to very specific tickets", said Smartfox Media's Martin Josten, adding, "although these no longer play a role in practise".[50]
In 2010, he won the Live Entertainment Award as Tour Promoter of the Year. The previous year, he presented musicians such as Coldplay, Green Day, Linkin Park, U2, and Xavier Naidoo through his company, MLK.[51]
In 2011, Lieberberg received a Live Entertainment Award in Frankfurt "in recognition of his safety record over the last 25 years of promoting the Rock am Ring concert".[52] Lieberberg'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,[53] with the bands performing to a crowd of 57,000 at the sold-out Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen.[54]
MLK had a history of partnering with Live Nation in Europe on global tours for Madonna, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake and U2.[1] In 2012, Lieberberg and Live Nation collaborated on two Madonna's [MDNA Tour] appearances in Berlin and another in Cologne.[55] Deviating from his established rock music routine, he was involved in the electronic music festival SonneMondSterne for two years.[56] Lieberberg founded Rock im Pott , a one-day festival that premiered on 25 August 2012 at the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen. Planned to be an annual event taking place in Gelsenkirchen, the first Rock im Pott featured Red Hot Chili Peppers, Placebo,[54] the BossHoss, Jan Delay, and Kraftklub and was produced by Lieberberg with Dirk Becker.[57] Lieberberg, along with Jacky Jedlicki,[58] who worked for MLK,[34] personally committed to having the 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards held in Frankfurt, which came to fruition in March of that year, with the city beating out all other candidates.[58]
In 2013, Lieberberg won two Live Entertainment Awards for Concert of the Year while promoting Coldplay at the Red Bull Arena in Leipzig and Festival of the Year for his Rock im Pott in Gelsenkirchen.[57][59] Lieberberg's 2013 Rock im Pott festival featured Biffy Clyro, Casper, Deftones, System Of A Down, Tenacious D, and Volbeat.[57] He launched the annual Rock'n'Heim festival in cooperation with Live Nation, which premiered in August 2013 at the Hockenheimring, featuring Nine Inch Nails and System of a Down.[60][56] In 2013, he handled German concerts of Waters' The Wall on 4 September at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin and on 6 September at the Esprit Arena in Düsseldorf. Liebeberg did not believe that Waters was anti-Semitic; however, he informed him that using an inflatable pig adorned with a Star of David in his performance could be considered offensive. The tensions resulted in "agreeing to disagree" between the two, and communication ended at this point. Liebeberg faced protests from a Jewish group in Düsseldorf and a local Christian politician, a situation he had already experienced during Waters' previous visits to Germany, and said he was "stuck in the middle of it".[61]
In 2014, the European Festivals Awards gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award.[21] The 2014 edition of the Rock'n'Heim festival attracted 35,000 people.[56]
Musicians whom Lieberberg brought to Germany over the years and promoted by MLK, who were able to establish their international careers in the country, included Bob Dylan, Dion, 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 Herbert Grönemeyer, Müller-Westernhagen,[37] and Scorpions.[12]
Chief executive officer of Live Nation GSA
In 2015, Lieberberg had extensive experience in concert promotion, totalling more than 45 years.[1] Elsa Keslassy of Variety described MLK as Germany's "leading concert promoter".[28]
In August 2015, Live Nation Entertainment announced the establishment of Live Nation Concerts Germany to promote concerts and festivals in Germany, as well as in Switzerland and Austria. Lieberberg was appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of Live Nation Concerts Germany, effective 1 January 2016. The deal with Lieberberg expanded Live Nation's reach by over 2 million fans and added more than 700 live events to its platform.[1] It was the conclusion of a series of unsuccessful attempts by Live Nation "to gain a foothold in the German market".[13] Lieberberg left his own company, MLK, in August 2015, after 15 years of collaboration with CTS Eventim. MLK was still part of CTS Eventim, which continued to organise the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals. With his son André, he began working for the Live Nation German arm.[62] Overall, Lieberberg is the CEO of Live Nation Germany, Switzerland, and Austria[63] (Live Nation GSA).[64]
While the Rock im Pott festival was on hiatus, Lieberberg organised Rock im Sektor, the "little brother" of Rock'n'Heim, via MLK.[65] He invited Linkin Park as headliner for the first Rock im Sektor festival, as well as various bands such as Kraftklub, and they performed for 25,500 people in September 2015 at the Esprit Arena in Düsseldorf.[66] In November 2015, Lieberberg was the promoter of Madonna's Rebel Heart Tour in Germany, at Cologne's Lanxess Arena and Berlin's Mercedes-Benz Arena.[67]
He remained the head of the organisers of the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals in 2016.[68]
On 23 June 2017, Lieberberg received the Plaque of Honour of the City of Frankfurt, which was awarded to him by Mayor Peter Feldmann. The ceremony took place in the Kaisersaal of Frankfurt's Römer in the presence of Lieberberg and his wife.[69] Feldmann 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.[70] He defended Waters in November 2017 when WDR decided to pull the broadcast of his June 2018 concert in Cologne due to allegations of anti-Semitism. Several broadcasters followed suit amid protests and a petition against Waters. Lieberberg said that "Two things must be separated here: personal opinion and artistic work", while rejecting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement supported by Waters.[71] Jens Balzer of Die Zeit wrote shortly after that Lieberberg "tried to reinterpret" Waters "as an innocent victim whose right to free speech should be curtailed by evil do-gooders".[72]
2022 marked the end of Lieberberg's involvement in the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals;[37][73] yet his name remains inextricably linked to the events.[37]
He and his son André oversee Goodlive, a Live Nation-owned company that presents ten festivals in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.[63]
In 2024, Lieberberg co-promoted Adele's concert residency, Adele in Munich, through Live Nation Germany.[74] He said Adele in Munich was "the most extensive project in my [more than] 50 years in the music business".[75] In April 2024, he was included in Billboard's 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".[63]
In December 2024, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's Daniel Meuren described Lieberberg as "The largest and most influential concert promoter in Germany". As talks began for a project to construct a new multifunctional arena for Frankfurt, Lieberberg proposed building an extension to the Festhalle located on the city's exhibition grounds, or even increasing its capacity by making interior changes, such as demolishing the balconies and replacing them with steep stands, while preserving the site's character, which is under monument protection.[76]
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Career in other event sectors
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Lieberberg was the talent manager of German singer and actress Ute Lemper from the second half of the 1980s until the early 1990s.[77][78][79] Lemper achieved success in the 1980s, initially with her role in the musical Cats in Vienna.[77][78] She became more successful in 1987 with her starring role as Sally Bowles in the Parisian musical Cabaret, when Lieberberg had taken her under his wing.[79]
Lieberberg aimed to establish Lemper as a leading entertainer in Germany, promoting her in mainstream media and enabling her to make headlines. Lieberberg achieved this ambition; the solo show produced for Lemper regularly sold out, as at venues such as Olympiahalle and Westfalenhallen, resulting in financial benefits for him.[79]
Lemper received poor critical reception in 1992 for her reprise of the role of Lola in The Blue Angel at the Theatre des Westens in Berlin, which damaged her career. Lemper blamed Lieberberg for her failure,[78] pointing to over-presence and saturation. He blamed her, and they went their separate ways.[79]
The Berlin production of the musical Les Misérables premiered on 26 September 2003, at the Theatre des Westens. Lieberberg originally secured the rights to the play and asked Heinz Rudolf Kunze to translate it into German in 1987 for a Vienna production.[80]
Lieberberg, in cooperation with Semmel Concerts, brought professional wrestlers from the American wrestling federation WWE to Germany. Wrestlers such as Kurt Angle, Batista, Mark Henry, Melina [Perez], Rey Mysterio, Randy Orton, and Booker T met on 11 November 2006, at the Nuremberg Arena during the SmackDown Survivor Series Tour.[81] It was Germany's inaugural WWE event.[37]
He was the co-producer of an Israeli event, a Judy Craymer musical production based on the songs of the Swedish pop band ABBA, titled Mamma Mia!, taking place in June 2007 for a series of performances at the Nokia Basketball Arena in Tel Aviv.[82]
Lieberberg had discovered the UFC on American television and met the Fertitta brothers during a fight in Las Vegas, before embarking on the adventure.[83] Lieberberg thereafter organised the first-ever UFC event in Germany.[37][83] He brought mixed martial arts (MMA) professionals to Cologne to fight in June 2009 at the Lanxess Arena [UFC 99].[83]
Through MLK and in collaboration with Live Nation, Lieberberg presented the "popular" Canadian Cirque du Soleil production Saltimbanco, which was performed inside arenas for a series of shows, including at Hamburg's Color Line Arena and O2 World Berlin in 2010.[37][84]
From 2011, he was responsible for the tour of Cirque du Soleil's production, Alegría, throughout Germany, which was presented in Frankfurt, Mannheim, Hamburg, Hanover, and Nuremberg, as well as Vienna, Austria.[85]
Lieberberg, described by Hans Riebsamen of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as [Fritz] Rau's "legitimate successor", took on the role of "Primo Impresario" by touring the Quidam production by Cirque du Soleil in Germany and Austria in 2013.[86]
Due to Operation Protective Edge and the resulting safety issues, Lieberberg and his peer, Shuki Weiss, cancelled Cirque du Soleil's Quidam show, scheduled from 6 to 21 August 2014, at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv, and postpone it until 2015.[87]
Lieberberg initially wanted to bring the Cirque du Soleil to Germany on a permanent basis. He then presented a European resident Cirque du Soleil show at the Theatre am Potsdamer Platz, Marlene-Dietrich-Platz in Berlin, starting in winter 2020. Frankfurt-based Live Nation Germany operated the theatre for more than five years.[88]
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Personal life
Lieberberg had a relationship with [Ute] Lemper while he was her manager.[78][79] The negative reviews Lemper received for her 1992 performances[78] infuriated him, which deteriorated their relationship and led to their separation.[79]
He has been married to Ingrid. In 1998, it was reported that the couple lived on Maui for four months a year and had long visited the island in the Hawaiian archipelago.[11] He has three sons,[7] all of whom hold positions of responsibility in the events and music industry.[89]
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As a musician
Before embarking on journalism, Lieberberg began as a member of a band during the early years of beat music.[12] He was a member of a band named Mike Lee and the Echos and toured the German provinces.[7][8] He was the frontman of the band the Rangers.[13]
From 1964 to 1967, he played in the Rangers band alongside Ludwig Ickert, Robert Wolf, Jürgen Kessner, and Axel Schürmann. They also named themselves the Trembles and the Sad Sack Set. On 21 October 1966, they were guests on the German television show Beat Beat Beat. The band is also featured in the book Die Beat Bible. CBS sued them on 24 February 1967 because the name of a band under CBS's contract sounded very similar. They lost the case and gave the money they had earned by selling their music to CBS. They renamed it "New Rangers," but the band split up shortly after.
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Discography
- Lovers Of The World Unite (1966)
- The Trembles − Here Comes My Baby / Baby Stop That Playin' Around (7" Single, 1967)
- The Rangers − Black Is Black (7" Single 1966)
- The Rangers − I Found a Love (7" Single, 1967)
- Sad Sack Set − Number One / The World For Us (7" Single, 1967)
- The Rangers − The Rangers (LP)
- The Rangers − These Boots Are Made For Walking (1967)
- The Rangers − Very Last Day (1967)
- The Rangers − Look Through Any Window (1967)
- The Rangers − Long Valley Road (1993)
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Written works
- Lieberberg, Marek, ed. (1993). Heute die! Morgen Du! (in German). Illustrated by Campino. Vienna: Paul Zsolnay Verlag. ISBN 978-3-552-05132-4.
See also
Notes
- Marcel Avram began promoting Michael Jackson in 1972.[22] Following the dissolution of Marek Lieberberg and Avram's partnership,[12] Mama Concerts merged with Fritz Rau's concert agency, Lippmann + Rau, to form Mama Concerts and Rau in 1989.[23] Avram, who ran the company Mama Concerts and Rau,[22] handled Jackson's world tours, Dangerous from 1992 to 1993 and HIStory from 1996 to 1997.[24]
- In previous years, the Rock am Ring festival had to deal with the fear of terrorist attacks, and numerous left-wing extremist actions shook Germany, followed by downpours and storms; consequently, the festival did not take place in 1989 and 1990.[19]
References
External links
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