A wee while back, we thought it’d be fun to do a party with the Optimo boys here in London with the same sort of hands-on approach they take to things back home in Glasgow. We tried it out last September at Village Underground and it went off big time so we’re doing three more this year, calling it a residency and getting fairly excited about how a range of forgotten bangers and modern classics from the Optimo vaults might sound on a massive D&B rig at 3am. For a bit of context before the first one (this Saturday, 6th June at Village Underground), we asked JG Wilkes, one half of the Glasgow-based duo, to reflect on the places and spaces that may or may not have had a hand in guiding his journey through music so far - from lonely Belfast clubber all the way to international DJ. When we initially enquired about getting involved in this, Jonnie was clear that his motivation to make Optimo such a central part of his life was drawn from a wide variety of sources and circumstances at a time of major social transition, and not especially from other parties or clubs. What follows below are fragments of the story as he saw it. The Delta & The Plaza | Belfast | 1980′s
When I was kid I hated parties. I found it traumatic to dress up at halloween, attend Sunday school trips and birthday parties at neighbours or cousin’s houses. School discos were something I would go to considerable lengths to avoid - any talk of “the dance” and I was off! So I was anti-social for a long time and on the few occasions I went, it was as a result of peer pressure or my mother urging me to go and “join in” with the others.
Despite my inclination at a young age not to engage with it in a social way, I could still see the way music could rouse and bring people together. It revealed itself it in all sorts of ways; nursery rhymes, in church, at drunken wedding parties, political rallies, orange walks, skipping songs in our street, the twats on the TV at the last night of the proms, they were all at it. I remember standing in church, not singing but watching people crying during the hymns. I was thinking - this is powerful stuff. Then seeing colliery choirs on the news during the miners strike and crying myself. I understood at that point that music could affect people on an intellectual, social and personal level in a way that was, for the most part, enjoyable.
From the age of about sixteen I certainly went to places that I liked and I’d usually come away thinking that I had been happier during the time I’d spent there around those people and listening to that music, than I had been when I was younger. I had a feeling there was something there for me. These were new places, I was hearing new music I loved and mixing with people who weren’t from round my way. So I suppose as someone who has always been a maker / doer I eventually arrived at a point where I did something and that had a transformative affect on my life.
Two spots that won’t fade from memory are The Delta and The Plaza. They were really the only clubs in Belfast where both religions could mix. Our small gay community were there first and eventually both venues became the favourite haunt of punks, goths, mods, psychobillies and anyone who wasn’t bitter and loved music. The club was based on Donegal Street and doubled as a dance studio and roller skating emporium. It had a kind of loose members only policy, a DJ on 2 floors, no bar, bring your own, and you could buy burgers, crisps, juice and things like that.
I would usually go along in a small group. At the beginning, none of us knew each other very well because we were all from different parts of the city. We came along in ones and two, not knowing each other’s religion but nobody mentioned the topic, so that alone was new. It all sort of combined to make for quite an open atmosphere, which stood in contrast to a lot of what was happening elsewhere in the city.
I suppose their influence becomes apparent when I really think about it because I did, of course, absorb a lot of stuff over those years and saw many different approaches to organising parties and DJ-ing. Some I found mind-blowing, inspirational, life-changing even. And others I found disgusting and deeply depressing. So I only did the things I did, and in the way I did them, because that was all I could do.
I didn’t really know what DJ-ing was until later on and at that point, the idea of pushing music I’d chosen on other people would have been terrifying to me. It wasn’t until I felt part of a wider “movement” and it came down to me to play music that I had to work in ideas of how I would do this. By the time we came to start “Optimo” as a weekly party I was driven only by the notion of doing something which was fun for us, not much more than that. If anything, it was intended to include the things we weren’t seeing. We probably knew we had enough friends between us to mean the thing could exist for a while anyhow but there was no big game plan. Just a feeling of wanting to play music we loved without any pressure and without anything to prove.
Big thanks to Jonnie for taking the time out to put this together for us. Last few advance tickets for our Optimo - Until the Music Stops party are available through Resident Advisor.
