U.K. A&R STAR NICK HUGGETT RESURFACES

Man of the moment Nick Huggett, who signed Adele to XL back in 2006 and introduced her to manager Jonathan Dickins, is moving on to pastures new. According to Record of the Day, Huggett, who has been director of A&R at Island Records U.K. since 2009, is joining Miles Leonard’s Warner Music U.K. label Parlophone.

Huggett’s career began when, while working in a record shop, he met James Lavelle, head of electronica/hip-hop label Mo’Wax Records, who gave him a job in his A&R department.

When Mo’Wax closed in 2002, Huggett stayed on to work for sister company XL, helmed by Richard Russell. While at XL, Huggett also signed M.I.A., Dizzee Rascal and Jack Penate.

In 2007 he joined Sony's Columbia as head of A&R before leaving for what was a newly created role at Island in 2009. During his time at the Universal U.K. label, he signed Rizzle Kicks, Alex Clare and Elli Ingram (a rising soul singer/songwriter).

It will be interesting to see what Huggett brings to Parlophone, a label Max Lousada’s Warner U.K. acquired as a result of divestments required for EU regulators to approve the Universal/EMI merger in 2012. That pickup brought acts including Coldplay, Kylie Minogue and Lily Allen moved to WMG, though UMG was permitted to keep the Beatles catalog.