In 1997, two Glasgow-based DJs came together to create a new night at Sub Club as a reaction to what they saw as the then domination of run-of-the-mill 4/4 techno. Two decades on and JD Twitch and JG Wilkes’ Optimo brand has travelled the world, mixing together all manner of genres and hosting the likes of LCD Soundsystem, Black Madonna and Four Tet in pursuit of eclectic, essential club nights.
Optimo’s reputation for offering something unpredictable (they once ‘recreated’ Apocalypse Now in the confines of the Glasgow club, complete with explosions and actors playing dead GIs) earned Twitch and Wilkes a devoted following. Their night’s Glasgow residency came to an end in 2010, but Twitch and Wilkes have since kept their party going, taking the brand out on the road before returning it to Scotland for the Optimo 20 Festival last month. The fest featured what Twitch dubs a ‘dream line-up’, with The Bug, Ben UFO and Black Madonna among those appearing.
And this month, their Optimo 20 tour lands in Shanghai. Here, the pair pick out their highlights from the past two decades.
JG Wilkes
1. My son Walter, my first child was born on a Sunday at 9pm in 2001 and because fathers couldn’t stay overnight at the hospital I was DJ-ing at the club three hours later! I felt like the luckiest guy alive having just witnessed the birth of my son and then playing music in my favourite place for all my friends. It was that day that John Philips of Mamas and Papas died and Keith played ‘California Dreaming’ as a finale to the night – one of my favourite songs since I was a kid – what a rollercoaster of emotions running through me.
2. We installed small TV monitors around the club each week for showing visual material we’d collected and one week landed ourselves up in Stewart Street Police Station in Glasgow being interviewed by several police officers regarding some very challenging and explicit art film we had (inadvertently) screened on the monitors. The police took a very serious line with us – to the extent that they insisted on retaining the material for a further 24 hours in order to ‘give it a full and rigorous examination’. We were later discharged with a warning. They must have enjoyed the film and found it stimulating I guess.
3. The creativity, inventiveness, and humour with which everyone embraced our annual Halloween event – ‘Optimo Espookio’.
4. The extent of the loyalty of our crowd never ceases to amaze and humble us. We had Alter Ego live one night and the faulty fire alarm system in the Sub Club meant that we had to evacuate the club of 550 people not once but three times as the alarm went off just a few bars after the start of Alter Ego’s set! This meant everybody evacuated onto Jamaica Street, the Fire Brigade arriving, inspecting the premises, and then getting everyone back inside. Three times this happened and hardly a single person gave up on us. We got it fixed and the show went ahead – it was wild.
5. James Chance's false teeth falling out into his saxophone case at soundcheck.
JD Twitch
6. The people who came to the club. We had the most fantastically loyal, loving audience anyone could ever hope to have. There were only ever a tiny number of nights we weren’t there but there are a couple of people who came to the club religiously who missed even fewer nights than we did.
7. Having Liquid Liquid whose song ‘Optimo’ we named the club after come and play. We went to New York and basically wouldn’t leave them alone until they agreed to come and play. An everlasting friendship was the result.
8. Arriving one Sunday to set up the club to discover the building next door was on fire. The chief fireman told us we might be a little delayed getting into the club. It was three years before we got back in. We spent the intervening years in various temporary homes.
9. Apocalypse Optimo! Recreating the film Apocalypse Now! one Sunday night in the Sub Club complete with explosions, jungle, actors pretending to be dead GIs, authentic sound design and lots and lots of smoke. So much fun.
10. Our Optimo 20 festival we had [in August this year]. In 30 years of DJing and putting on club nights this was the best event I have ever been involved in. Dream line up, next level production and the best crowd imaginable.
Optimo 20 are at DADA 115 Xingfu Lu, near Fahuazhen Lu. Sat 9. 10pm. Admission tba.