The Wiggles

Children absorb information faster in the first three years than at any other stage of their lives. And for 18 years, the biggest thing in pre-three entertainment worldwide has been four finger-wagging, ever-grinning, skivvy-wearing, quietly-pioneering blokes from the Sydney suburbs.

The Wiggles began in North Ryde where Anthony Field, Murray Cook and Greg Page were three guys among 500 girls studying early childhood education at Macquarie University. Field, a former rifleman and medic in the AIF, had grown up in Kellyville the youngest of seven kids and had formed a mildly successful rockabilly pop band, the Cockroaches, at school with his brother Paul and mate Jeff Fatt.

But the death of Field’s infant niece from SIDS in 1988 inspired him to start writing a switched-on kids album. He lured Cook from his job at the Australian Tax Office and Fatt from his industrial design degree to play guitar and keyboards. The band also drafted family and girlfriends to don costumes for a 40 minute video version of the album that took one day to shoot.

When the mum of one of his pre-school students returned the album because her child wouldn’t stop listening to it, Field knew he was onto something. The ABC agreed to release the opus and the Wiggles played their debut gig at a Randwick pre-school before piling into Fatt’s van for a tour of Sydney shopping centres and playgroups, where they lugged their own (borrowed) gear and split profits with nursing mothers’ groups.

Wiggle trademarks came next. They adopted colours and shticks based on their real personalities. Greg wore yellow and did magic. Anthony wore blue and ate a lot. Murray wore red and played guitar. Jeff wore purple and fell asleep.

Such memorable character traits were combined with catchy yet challenging songs, deliberately mistake-riddled choreography and a soon-to-be signature finger-wagging move (stolen from ten-pin bowlers). Little minds lit up like fireflies.

The Wiggles were on a roll. By 1995 they were breaking records for music and video sales and playing to packed houses. Yet the ABC advised them to “not speak, just sing” and to switch their colourful skivvies and black dacks for shorts and caps. The Wiggles rebelled, refusing to condescend to kids, self-producing two TV series and signing to Disney.

The Wiggles took on the world. They started small – their first US gig was a Milwaulkee carpark for four people – but church halls and community theatres quickly gave way to stadium sell-outs. When 9/11 hit and many international acts cancelled their tours to America, the Wiggles stepped up, “forging an unbreakable connection with the US people in the shell-shocked weeks after the terrorist attacks”, an act of humanity recognised in 2003 when Big Apple and Big Red Car became one and November 1 was named Wiggles Day in New York.

With 50 people on the payroll, a 500 gig-a-year tour calendar and an estimated value in the billions, the
Wiggles were now so valuable to the world’s children they toured in separate planes and buses so that if disaster struck “at least half would survive and carry on.”

Disaster did strike. Founding member and singer Greg quit the band in 2005 with a chronic orthostatic condition and in 2007, Field went public on his battle with depression. But the smiles never ceased and the music never stopped. Show after show, year after year, the kids kept coming. To laugh, smile and sing. To be challenged, entertained, inspired, empowered.

Four million CDs. 17 million DVDs. Over $45 million a year. De Niro and Seinfeld both avowed fans. It all pales before the Wiggles legacy as teachers. Today their songs are staples in pre-schools all over the planet and, be they in Madison Square Garden or remote villages in PNG, children keep connecting, including those terminally ill and life-challenged children who meet their heroes at all Wiggles shows. “On stage we’re happy,” says Field, “but backstage there are tears.”

Back in Sydney, where the four return to homes in Balmain, Manly, Pyrmont and Leichardt, summer dawns with familiar rituals. The Wiggles sequester themselves for a month every year to write and record enough material for three albums before embarking on an umpteenth tour of the Sydney suburbs. On Christmas morn they’ll do as they’ve done since 1995 and perform at Sydney Children’s Hospital. And around the world, under millions of trees in millions of homes, the Wiggles will be waiting. Angus Fontaine

Wiggles DVDs and albums are available through Roadshow Entertainment.

Lifeline

1991The Wiggles form at Macquarie Uni
1995Wiggles win first of seven ARIAs
1997 The Wiggles Movie 5th biggest of year
1998Sign with Disney Channel in US
1999Anthony named Bachelor of Year
200312 gigs at Madison Square Garden
2005 Wiggles World opens in QLD
2006 Yellow Wiggle Greg Page quits
2007 Dorothy the Dinosaur goes solo
2008 Top BRW Rich List 4th year running

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