LKA Longhorn Stuttgart

LKA-Longhorn is a concert venue in the Wangen district of Stuttgart, founded in 1984. In the 1980s, it seated 1,500 people and was one of the largest country-western clubs outside the United States. In the 1990s, it became a popular stage for performances by famous performers of various genres of rock and pop music.

Thomas "Tommy" Filimonov originally opened the Longhorn Country & Western Saloon in March 1984 to satisfy the need of the American military stationed in Stuttgart for an American-style pub. The pub quickly became well known even outside of Germany and regularly attracted visitors with live performances from bands such as Truck Stop and Dave Dudley. Especially after the CNN news channel reported on the pub in June 1984, even guests from the United States began to visit it.

At the end of 1984, the first public male striptease in Germany was held at LKA Longhorn, which caused a strong reaction from the then authorities. However, the operators were not satisfied and continued to host typical US events such as topless women's boxing, mud wrestling and a wet T-shirt contest.

Since 1987, Nina Hagen has operated the LKA Longhorn as a successful concert venue, and many other domestic and international performers have performed there, including Bobby Womack, The Pogues, Linton Kwesi Johnson and others.

After the withdrawal of most American soldiers from Germany in the 1990s, the building was reorganized and received its current name LKA-Longhorn (Longhorn Cultural Exchange). Since then, it has functioned as a discotheque, a concert hall and a venue for promotional parties for various companies.

Over the years, many German and international artists have performed at the LKA-Longhorn, including Roger Chapman, Die Ärzte, Bad Religion, Bushido, Nick Cave, Die Prinzen, Faith No More, Die Fantastischen Vier, Kraftklub, Nina Hagen, Nickelback, Nirvana (opened by Sonic Youth) and many others.

A special event was the Paradise Lost concert, which took place on September 5, 1993 at the Longhorn LCA and was recorded by the MTV music channel for television broadcast.