The History of Dance Music Finds a Home at Potato Head Bali

One of the bright points of being stuck at home is our increased desire to engage in the travel and hospitality community, dreaming of where we’ll go next and discovering all of the places we haven’t yet been. On that list is Potato Head Bali, a ‘creative village,’ featuring the Kaamama Suites, the Potato Head Beach Club, and Potato Head Studios. It’s essentially a creative resort, strongly centered around music culture. Potato Head hosts massive parties with international DJs like DJ Harvey and Peggy Gou, re-capturing the essence of the balearic wave of the ’70s and ’80s while offering its own form of modern transcendence. “‘Music is a big part of our culture here at Potato Head,” Potato Head Dan Mitchell says. “Dance music culture in particular has deeply inspired us and we are a part of the global dance music community.”

Now Potato Head is taking its passion for music even further. It’s become the permanent home of the Wild Life Archive, Steve Terry’s collection of all things music: posters, photos, books, and eclectic items that serve as mementos of the blossoming of various music scenes. “Wild Life is the world’s biggest collection of dance music artifacts and memorabilia from early NYC, Chicago and Ibiza,” Mitchell emphasizes. “So for us it’s like our history books and we are proud to give this a home at Desa Potato Head. We want to showcase this as part of our musical roots and how we are living it today in Bali.” With over 4,000 items in the collection, the debut was supposed to be a massive event at Potato Head—until they, like everyone else in hospitality, had to temporarily cease operations. However, the desire to share their musical leanings remained as strong as ever, and Potato Head decided to reveal some of the key pieces online throughout their social channels. We got a hold of a few of those images—each described by Steve Terry himself—and it’s a throwback to the kind of parties we can only fantasize of attending. And it’s a clue to the exact type of energy we’ll be bringing to Potato Head when we can travel and dance and celebrate again with abandon.

“This screen printed bandana designed
by Keith Haring acted as the invite to his first ‘Party of Life’ event held at the Paradise Garage. A rare item of which not many survived due to its practical nature and lives on as a defining example of Haring’s club related artwork.”

“One of the definitive books on disco – a dance floor expose par excellence that showcases many of the era’s legendary nightclubs.”

“This offset printed poster designed by Peter Saville marks the 1st anniversary of the Hacienda in May 1983. A classic piece of graphic design that incorporated the hazard stripes that lined the main dance floor of the Hacienda.”

“This spread from the 2014 book ‘What
We Wore – a peoples history of British style’ features artefacts from Wild Life Archive.”