A sharp new breed of young promoters, armed with internet skills and a DIY ethic, is rethinking the way we get to hear music. With their BlackBerrys and MP3s (no more wheely bags laden with vinyl), these London-based multitaskers don’t just run and promote nights, they also DJ, edit fanzines and websites and manage upcoming bands.

Networking sites such as myspace.com are crucial. “We wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the internet,” says Caius Pawson. Under the banner of Young Turks, this 20-year-old has been running Troubled Minds, a monthly night at the 333 club in Hoxton, for more than a year and next month launches the first weekly indie-based club night at the Scala in King’s Cross. “We do all of our promotion on the net, book bands, discover most of our new music through blogs — it’s the best source of new music.”

It’s something that has put these young Malcolm McLarens in an interesting and influential position. Their nights tend to revolve around new bands rather than name DJs and they therefore know about “buzz” artists long before the bigwig A&R men catch on. Most are now smart enough to capitalise on this, putting out limited-edition vinyl singles on their own labels. Several have even been signed up to the major record labels, with the brief “to keep doing what you’re doing”.

So, what to expect at the nights they are putting on? Reflecting today’s anything goes, iPod Shuffle attitude, don’t be surprised to hear the Maccabees followed by dubstep followed by Scott Walker, plus — the main attraction — a plethora of live bands. The same “no barriers” credo goes for the crowds — a rag-tag of under-agers (club-goers, too, are starting young), students, fashionistas, musos and should-know-betters.

Nights can be found pretty much wherever anyone has the gumption to host something — from such old-time Soho clubs as Tatty Bogles (Young and Lost), to pubs in Barnes (Blue Flowers) to the Café de Paris in Leicester Square (Young Turks).

Nor is it just a navel-gazing London movement. The long arm of the internet means that, like band tours, these nights are now going nationwide as well. Colin Roberts, the 21-year-old editor of drownedinsound.com, an online music magazine now with its own club night and imprint (putting out the first singles of Kaiser Chiefs and Martha Wainwright), says: “When bands like the Libertines appeared, London suddenly became edgy again. People started to look here for what’s cool, but they don’t want to have to go London, they want London to come to them.”

Veterans at 24 and 29, Olly Parker and Matty Hall have run their London night White Heat for three years and now have monthly events in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The way that White Heat began reflects the origins of the whole scene. “We found ourselves going to horrible clubs four or five nights every week. The only good night around at the time was Trash, which was more electro-oriented. We thought, let’s do our own night and make it more guitar-based.”

If it all sounds a bit too cool for school — and there is a certain middle-class Hoxton whiff to a lot of the crowds, with Peaches Geldof a selfappointed mascot — the scene seems to have legs precisely because its organisers don’t take it too seriously. The most respected of the nights, the superclub if you will, is called Way Out West. And way out it is, hosted in the very unglamorous Brentford Football Club.

Keith Anderson, 29, started the all-ages night in May 2005. “I got into promoting to raise money for the Brentford Supporters’ Association,” says the softly spoken, unlikely super-promoter. “I put a band called Special Needs on in the bar underneath the main stand. About a hundred people turned up.” The monthly event now sells out its 700 capacity with a crowd that NME memorably described as “fuelled by a pocket-money’s worth of beer”.

Trendy London clubs such as the 333 were slumping at the time — so what was Anderson’s masterplan? “Simple, we’ve done well because it’s all about a shared love of new music. Artists such as Jamie T, Larrakin Love and Jack Penate (now signed to Virgin, Warners and XL respectively) all played with us early on and they still come back.”

This is a mantra that’s repeated. Pawson happily admits: “Young Turks doesn’t really have a core following. It’s purely about the acts that we put on.” Sahil Varma, 20, whose year-old fanzine Transparent has spawned a club night with homes in London and Brighton, says: “People won’t come just for the name of the night, and if they see a band that they don’t recognise, they won’t come. They can be quite fickle.” But with the live music scene in rude health, it seems that these young tyros are on to a winner. “The atmospere is unique,” says Anderson. “It’s an all-age event at Way Out West. It’s the best thing to see a seven-year-old raving while a 60-year-old jives behind them. You should come along, bring your dad.”

For details of new year events go to:

myspace.com/WayOutWest3

www.myspace.com/turkishdelights

www.whiteheatmayfair.com

www.myspace.com/youngandlostclub