In early July 2025, fabled Glasgow club-night Optimo announced through their socials that Keith McIvor (aka JD Twitch) had been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, with a mere weeks to live. They asked friends and admirers to share personal messages. He passed on 19th September 2025. The strange thing was I had already shared a “pre-obituary” with him during the pandemic, shortly after Andrew Weatherall had died.

This is the last message I sent to him.
R.I.P Keith.

Keith, a chara,
I just heard your news and I'm absolutely heartbroken. This cuts deep.
Do you remember I contacted you during the early months of the pandemic? The future seemed bleak. I was alone with plenty of time to (obsessively) over-think and I messaged many DJ friends of mine that I respected, to openly express my admiration for them, lest our paths never crossed again.

I wrote these words to you:
Had meant to drop you a mail at various points over the past few months to see how you're doing. I've been getting in touch with most of my DJ friends and acquaintances to see how they're coping in the current climate. Seeing that yourself and Jonnie have been DJing for decades, I can't even begin to imagine the impact is had on morale / lifestyle / income etc. Hope you're doing OK.

After Weatherall died and finding myself penning an obituary, then reading ones that many of his mates and peers wrote, I thought - 'what a shame he never got to hear any of this'. In early summer (don't laugh), I sent a few DJs that I admire a "pre-obit", basically an email telling them the impact they had on my work and my tastes, which they could read while still breathing. I had one written in my head to send you but didn't get around to it. It was something to the effect of there's nobody I've come across that has waded in deeper than you and unearthed tracks that nobody else had the imagination to play in a club (Tchaikovsky, par example). My admiration extends to the passion that goes into your niche mixes, as it does to your lack of snobbery when it comes to recognising the power of what most people might consider cheesy music. I never wrote it, but that was the gist. Jonnie's unique sense of fashion would also get a paragraph or two. I still laugh at some of the stories he told me, back when I used to see him regularly. And, as I told you in Cork a few years back, your attitude to mixing has informed my own approach to DJing, particularly when DJing at weddings (!) Often at these night, you get people who've never heard a DJ mix tracks - especially tracks from different genres, or an acapella over a track - approach you at the end of a wedding to say 'I loved your segueing'.

Now I'm sitting at my desk and struggling to process your news. All I can do is to convey my respect for you and the huge influence you had on my listening.

You and Jonnie are absolute heroes to me. You always only played music you absolutely loved and never bowed to the vagaries of fashion. You dug deep ... deeper than almost anyone I know, whether unearthing some previously-unheard post-punk track recorded in a dank 1980s Edinburgh basement, or a glorious slice of oddball Japanese electronica, or discovering some giddy Asian nose-pipe recording that would suddenly become absolute essential daily listening.

You are music to the core. One of planet Earth's most curious and open minds when it comes to navigating this planet of sound. A true rara avis and an absolute gentleman. Sunday night dancing in the Sub Club and meeting your friends on jaunts to Glasgow are amongst my fondest memories of dancing in dark rooms anywhere in Europe over the decades.

Thank you for the music.
Thank you for your friendship and kinds words over the years.
I will miss you terribly.
Big love from Galway,

Cian X

PS I just typed 'Optimo' into my music library and over six hundred files popped up. Immense.

PPS I only discovered very recently that Tomorrow The Rain Will Fall Upwards is YOU! I'm listening to the record right now. I'll be listening to your records till I see you again somewhere in the cosmos X

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