Icebreakers
From LGBT Archive
- This article is about the former group in London. For the current group in Manchester, see Icebreakers Manchester.
Icebreakers was a support group for gay men and lesbians. It was planned in 1972 [1] but appears to have been established in 1973 [2] , and ran until about 1984 from premises in Brixton [3].Micky Burbidge was an active member of Icebreakers. Icebreakers ran a disco at the Prince Albert (Central Station), and then from summer 1979 at the Hemingford Arms in London every Friday evening [4]. Antony Grey (1992) states that Icebreakers was 'an offshoot of the GLF (Gay Liberation Front) anti-psychiatry group[5].
References
- ↑ Papers in the Bishopsgate Institute: TOWNSON/21 Papers and correspondence regarding gay counselling organisations
- ↑ Gay News no 28 1973 Dennis Hudson and Micky Burbidge write 'We started operating on 10th May 1973, from an address in Brixton' & Gay News no 46 1974 'Icebreakers celebrate their first anniversary Happy Birthday' was the headline on the front page
- ↑ Out of the Shadows, Chapter 15. The start year for Icebreakers is given as 1971 in an article in Mister Vol 3 no 4
- ↑ Capital Gay 17 July 1981 listings. Admission was 30p. The disco was held upstairs at the Hemingford Arms pub. A 12 minute audio recording done at the Hemingford Arms at an Icebreakers disco in 1982 is held at the British Library (Catalogue C586/319)
- ↑ Antony Grey (1992) p 181 Quest for Justice; Towards Homosexual Emancipation (Sinclair-Stevenson;London) ISBN 1 85619 155 9
