Bolton Going To X-Ray?

One of the stories to break over Holland’s Eurosonic-Noorderslag weekend is likely to be British agent Paul Bolton formally announcing he’s leaving Helter Skelter and joining X-Ray Touring, according to Pollstar sources.

He has worked with the same team as X-Ray’s Ian Huffam, Jeff Craft and Steve Strange, who quit Helter Skelter to set up the new company at the beginning of 2005.

Bolton will be in Groningen to see how three of his breakthrough acts – Cosmo Jarvis, The Chapman Family and Serena Maneesh – do in this year’s European Talent Exchange. He also represents Kaiser Chiefs, Faithless, Apocalyptica, Blue October, Hole, Within Temptation, Reamonn, and The Duke & The King.

He’s also the agent for White Lies, which came out top of ETEP 2009 with 15 European festival slots and must be a favorite to take Virtual Festivals’ award for best European newcomer.

The awards are being staged in Groningen the day before the conference and showcase festival open.

Bolton, who says he doesn’t want to discuss his career with the media, joined Concorde Artistes at the beginning of the ’80s and moved to Helter Skelter 13 years later.

At press time it wasn’t possible to get comment from X-Ray.

The Eurosonic-Noorderslag weekend is Jan. 14-16.