The World’s End pub in Fins­bury Park has become quite a des­ti­na­tion for live music, with many of those nights put on by Suc­cess Express music, an organ­i­sa­tion devot­ed to nur­tur­ing emerg­ing artists. Dri­ving Suc­cess Express is the inde­fati­ga­ble Lor­raine Solomons, who also com­man­deers The Roof Gar­den and Cen­tu­ry Soho amongst oth­er venues. Lor­raine will also be host­ing Time Out Ris­ing Stars at 229 The Venue on July 5th – it’s an event she has been pas­sion­ate about since first attend­ing a Ris­ing Stars night in 2014, and is anoth­er out­let for her to give a hand­ful of the tal­ent­ed young artists she cares about the chance to find a wider audience.

The pub is a two-minute stroll from Fins­bury Park, sit­ting in an area which seems to be becom­ing more gen­tri­fied by the minute. I’ve attend­ed a few World’s End Unplugged Ses­sions here, and seen a range of young, emerg­ing tal­ent take to the stage – not an easy feat some­times as, although there will always be an atten­tive audi­ence seat­ed at tables in the music room, the rest of the pub is tak­en up with a noisy Fri­day night crowd. But that, of course is all par for the course for those on the way up.

Artists I’ve par­tic­u­lar­ly loved have includ­ed Tim de Graaw, a singer-song­writer and gui­tarist with a warm, soul­ful voice and beau­ti­ful com­po­si­tions, and he’s per­form­ing at the Bed­ford 14th June. Hat­tie Marsh (above) appeared at a May World’s End Ses­sion – I admired her courage to start with an acapel­la num­ber, which high­light­ed the depth and qual­i­ty of her voice.

I had the plea­sure of wit­ness­ing a set from Michael Kil­bey at the same show – a com­pelling singer-song­writer and per­former. The head­er image on his web­site cap­tures his spir­it, a man wrestling with issues inside his head, shar­ing those thoughts through his songs. He may be inward-look­ing on stage but he’s still got the mag­net­ic stage pres­ence required of an artist per­form­ing alone. There’s a depth to his mate­r­i­al that has gal­vanised me to dis­cov­er more of his mate­r­i­al and what makes him tick.

Gen­er­al­ly there are four acts per evening ses­sion, and the area is seat­ed, with plen­ty of craft beers on offer and a diverse menu. World’s End Unplugged Ses­sions take place at The World’s End pub, Fins­bury Park on select­ed Fri­day and Sat­ur­day nights, please check before attending.

JULY 16: Con­grat­u­la­tions to Michael Kil­bey on a great win … turn to News page for more

Suc­cess Express music