Hey Lemon
Checkout my next London event WEIRDSVILLE Sat 12th May
Notice it's FREE ENTRY with 2 VERY GOOD garage/rock'n'roll bands on plus music'n'booze till 1am. How can you beat that?
I don't like to call myself a promoter but I put the night together, choose the bands make the movie projections, make the flyers, play the music and even introduce the band!! ALL FOR FREE, I get ZILCH, not even a beer, so I hope this restores faith in your view of London promoters. There are a number of FREE nights both in London and Brighton that have a similar outlook to mine, which is, putting on bands that DO IT FOR YOU!!
So far all the bands I've dealt with understand what I'm up against to make live music possible and they've all gone out their way to make it happen on the resources I can offer. Obviously like you said some money has to be obtained to cover the nights costs so you will have to work out how your gonna raise the £'s as nothing comes from nothing!
I suggest you get your band out there, post some tunes for download or make some youtube videos and bother people like me!
Good luck
Mr A