The massive legacy record collection belonging to late Scottish DJ, JD Twitch, aka Keith McIvor, is to go on sale one year after his death.
Honouring the pioneering producer and one half of Glasgow club duo Optimo with Johnnie Wilkes, Keith’s widow Marissa Costello says the family wanted the records to be “played and discovered by new owners” rather than remain in an archive.
Part one of the collection - up to 8,000 records - will be sold from World of Echo who will give over their entire east London record store to the iconic collection from Saturday, 14th November. Part two will follow in early 2027.
A lifelong collector, the enormous record haul which spanned genres, countries and eras moving from post-punk to techno and electro, dates back to Keith’s childhood growing up in Balerno, Edinburgh, where he spent all of an inheritance from his grandfather on records - much to the disapproval of his father.
“Neither of them could have known then that those records, and the curiosity that drove him to buy them, would become an important investment in a remarkable life and career in music,” said Marissa.
Tributes to the iconic DJ, who was hugely respected across the industry for his illustrious career and Optimo’s legendary Sub Club residency, passed away last September from a brain tumour.
Marissa said Keith believed records are there to be played.
“We know that people will have different opinions about what we should have done with it, but Keith believed records are ultimately there to be played, discovered and loved”, she said.
“Keith’s collection could never remain intact forever in quite the way it existed around him. For us, allowing these records to go back out into the world — to DJs, collectors and music lovers, where they can be played, discovered, shared and loved all over again — feels much more like Keith than allowing them to sit untouched in an archive, which was never what he was about.”
Each vinyl has been graded and will carry a ‘World of JD Twitch’ sticker in honour of the late DJ.
Marissa added: “Each record from the collection will carry a ‘World of JD Twitch’ sticker, so wherever individual records eventually travel, there will be a small reminder of the collection they once belonged to and the person who chose them.”
World of Echo will also carry memorial fanzines celebrating Keith’s life and musical legacy, available in exchange for donations to the Keith McIvore Glioblastoma Research Fund.
The Cheshire Street shop owners said it will be a “great honour” to present the record collection of Keith McIvor, aka JD Twitch, life-long collector and DJ, and “one half of the inestimable Optimo (Espacio)”.
Photo credit: JD Twitch portrait by Marissa Costello