28 October 2018
Malcolm Lowry described Liverpool as 'that terrible city whose main street is the ocean' and the ninth annual Lowry Lounge was staged on both sides of the river Mersey that flows to the ocean. Firstly, at the Williamson Art Gallery, there was a talk introducing Lowry's Wirral and an installation by Alan Dunn. The Birkenhead gallery opened at the end of 1928, the year after a young Malcolm made his maiden voyage sailing as a deckhand from the town's docks to the Far East. The Lounge continued at the Bluecoat with a musical focus: a film and talk about the previous year's performance commission, The Lighthouse Invites the Storm, a talk by Mark Goodall on Lowry and jazz, and an 'open Malc' session with musical, poetic and other contributions from the floor, the day finishing with a Lowry-themed disco and a toast to the writer.
