reggae 'scene' in London?... and while i'm at it, what's with huge cover charges??

hi,
i moved to London last year and have been completely in love with how much music is everywhere in the city, i admit i havent searched that hard, but does anyone know of any places in the city where there are frequent reggae gigs?
i'd say one complaint i have about London is the lack of chilled, smaller bars (not pubs! i know those are everywhere) with decent live music, that dont charge a fortune in cover charges.
...ok, this post might actually turn into a vent about london hehe
one thing i love to do in other cities is explore the night life by bar-hopping and usually manage to find quite a few little places with 'soul' (absolutely hate the 'chain-bars' like vodka revolutions etc), good music, good atmosphere... something i've tried many times to do in London, but no luck: all too often we end up 'stuck' in a place because we've had to fork over 5-10 pounds just to get in, let alone drink anything...
am i passing these places by completely or is this a real drawback about London?
probably my favorite place to go out and wonder around to find bars is old street/ brick lane area, have found some nice individual places there, but still on the expensive side...
does anyone have any favorite areas to go bar hoping?
(oh yea, and my original question: any chilled out reggae places not too far from the center?)
peace,
-shrimpgirl

 

i'd imagine the cover charges are becaus of astronomical rent in central london.

 

Check out university of dub in brixton, its amazing. I think they have it once or twice a month, and its at a local community centre, and its really cool. I believe I will be going on the 3rd of febuary, with Iration Steppas playing.