The Wiggles are a children's group formed in
SydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia in 1991. Their original members were
Anthony FieldAnthony Donald Field AM is an Australian musician and actor. He is best known as a member of the children's group The Wiggles and the 1980s and 90s band The Cockroaches with his brothers, Paul and John and another future Wiggle, Jeff Fatt.Field was the youngest of seven children, and grew up in...
,
Phillip WilcherPhillip Wilcher is an Australian pianist and composer, also known as the Fifth Wiggle, since he was one of the founding members of the Wiggles, Australia's richest entertainers, who left the group after the group's debut album in 1991....
,
Murray CookMurray James Cook AM is an Australian vocalist, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as one of the founding members of the children's band The Wiggles...
, Greg Page, and
Jeff FattJeffrey Wayne "Jeff" Fatt AM , is a Chinese Australian musician and actor. He is best known as a member of the children's band The Wiggles and the 1980s and 90s band The Cockroaches...
. Wilcher left the group after their first album. In 2006, Page was forced to retire from the group due to illness and was replaced by understudy
Sam MoranSam Moran is an Australian entertainer best known for being a member of the children's band The Wiggles. He was born in Sydney and raised in Wagga Wagga.-Career:...
.
Field and Fatt were members of the Australian pop band
The CockroachesThe Cockroaches was an Australian pop rock band which achieved reasonable success in the 1980s and 1990s. The band took its name from an obscure nom de plume favoured by The Rolling Stones during the 1960s....
in the 1980s, and Cook was a member of several bands before meeting Field and Page at
Macquarie UniversityMacquarie University is an Australian public teaching and research university located in Sydney, with its main campus situated in Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of Sydney...
, where they were studying to become pre-school teachers. A school project led to the recording of their first album and tour in 1991. As a result of their background, the group combines
musicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and theories of
child developmentChild development stages describe theoretical milestones of child development. Many stage models of development have been proposed, used as working concepts and in some cases asserted as nativist theories....
in their videos, television programs, and live shows. Since their inception, other regular characters (Captain Feathersword, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, and Wags the Dog) and a troupe called "The Wiggly dancers" have toured with them and appeared in their CDs, DVDs, and television programs.
The group has
franchisedFranchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a verb....
their concepts to other countries, developed Wiggles sections in amusement parks in Australia and the US, and won several recording industry awards. The Wiggles have been called "the world's biggest preschool band" and "your child's first rock band". The group has achieved worldwide success with their children's albums, videos, television series, and concert appearances. The Wiggles were named
Business Review Weekly'sBRW is an Australian weekly business magazine published by the Fairfax Media group. It regularly compiles lists which rank corporations and individuals according to various criteria, similar to Fortune magazine in the United States.BRW provides news and commentary on the economy, business and...
top-earning Australian entertainers for four years in a row and earned
A$The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
45 million in 2009. They have earned 17
goldMusic recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
, 12
platinumMusic recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
, three double-platinum, and ten multi-platinum awards for sales of over 17 million DVDs and four million CDs. By 2002, The Wiggles had become the
Australian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
's (ABC) most successful pre-school television program.
History
Anthony FieldAnthony Donald Field AM is an Australian musician and actor. He is best known as a member of the children's group The Wiggles and the 1980s and 90s band The Cockroaches with his brothers, Paul and John and another future Wiggle, Jeff Fatt.Field was the youngest of seven children, and grew up in...
and
Jeff FattJeffrey Wayne "Jeff" Fatt AM , is a Chinese Australian musician and actor. He is best known as a member of the children's band The Wiggles and the 1980s and 90s band The Cockroaches...
were members of
The CockroachesThe Cockroaches was an Australian pop rock band which achieved reasonable success in the 1980s and 1990s. The band took its name from an obscure nom de plume favoured by The Rolling Stones during the 1960s....
, a Sydney pop band that toured Australia and recorded two albums of "60s inspired pop music" during the 1980s. In 1988, the infant daughter of Cockroaches band member Paul Field died of
SIDSSudden infant death syndrome is marked by the sudden death of an infant that is unexpected by medical history, and remains unexplained after a thorough forensic autopsy and a detailed death scene investigation. An infant is at the highest risk for SIDS during sleep, which is why it is sometimes...
, and the group disbanded. Anthony Field enrolled at
Macquarie UniversityMacquarie University is an Australian public teaching and research university located in Sydney, with its main campus situated in Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of Sydney...
in Sydney to complete his degree in
early childhood educationEarly childhood education is the formal teaching and care of young children by people other than their family or in settings outside of the home. 'Early childhood' is usually defined as before the age of normal schooling - five years in most nations, though the U.S...
, and later stated that his niece's death "ultimately led to the formation of [The] Wiggles".
Murray CookMurray James Cook AM is an Australian vocalist, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as one of the founding members of the children's band The Wiggles...
was the guitarist in various pop bands, including Finger Guns and
Bang Shang a LangBang Shang a Lang is an Australian pub rock band, active in the mid-to-late 1990s to the present day. They are based in Sydney.Most of their members were part of other bands in the Sydney music scene from the late 1970s through the 90s; Keyboard player Richard Stevens hails from Leeds in the...
, and had worked as a clerk at the
Australian Taxation OfficeThe Australian Taxation Office is an Australian Government statutory agency and the principal revenue collection body for the Australian Government. The ATO has responsibility for administering the Australian federal taxation system and superannuation legislation...
before enrolling at Macquarie. Field, Cook, and Greg Page, who had been a roadie for The Cockroaches, were among the half dozen men in a program with approximately 500 women.
Motivated to utilise early educational concepts to create high-quality children's music, the classmates created a music project for their courses and produced their first album in 1991, dedicated to Field's deceased niece. Like a university assignment, they produced a folder of essays that explained the educational value of each song on the album. They needed a keyboardist, so Field asked his old band mate, Fatt, for his assistance in what they thought would be a temporary project. The group received songwriting help from John Field, Anthony's brother and former band mate, and from
Phillip WilcherPhillip Wilcher is an Australian pianist and composer, also known as the Fifth Wiggle, since he was one of the founding members of the Wiggles, Australia's richest entertainers, who left the group after the group's debut album in 1991....
, who was working with the early childhood music program at Macquarie. After contributing to their first album, hosting the group's first recording sessions in his Sydney home, and appearing in a couple of the group's first videos, Wilcher chose to leave the group to pursue a career in classical music.
[In 2003, Wilcher claimed that his involvement with The Wiggles had been "virtually erased"; in the late 90s, they re-recorded their first CD, renamed it, and removed all of Wilcher's compositions.]
The group reworked a few Cockroaches tunes to better fit the genre of children's music; for example, according to Field, a Cockroaches song he wrote, "Mr. Wiggles Back in Town" became "Get Ready to Wiggle" and inspired the band's name because they thought that wiggling described the way children dance. Field gave copies of their album to his young students to test out the effect of the group's music on children; one child's mother returned it the next day because her child would not stop listening to it.
At first, The Wiggles filmed two music videos with the
Australian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
(ABC) to promote their first album; they also decided to create a self-produced, forty-minute long video version of their album. Finances were limited, so there was no post-production editing of the video project. They used Field's nieces and nephews as additional cast, and hired the band's girlfriends to perform in character costumes. Cook's wife made their first costumes. They used two cameras and visually checked the performance of each song; that way, according to Paul Field, it took them less time to complete a forty-minute video than it took other production companies to complete a three-minute music video.
Early career
Using their connections with The Cockroaches, Field and Fatt's manager from their Cockroaches days arranged for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to distribute The Wiggles' album in Australia. The album cost approximately A$4,000 to produce and it sold 100,000 copies in 1991. Field, Cook, and Page began their teaching careers, but on their manager's advice, they toured in unusual settings throughout Sydney, New South Wales, and eastern Australia. They could only perform during school holidays, so finding time to perform together was, as Field reported, "challenging". Their debut performance was at a
pre-schoolA nursery school is a school for children between the ages of one and five years, staffed by suitably qualified and other professionals who encourage and supervise educational play rather than simply providing childcare...
in
RandwickRandwick is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Randwick is located 6 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the City of Randwick...
. They
buskedStreet performance or busking is the practice of performing in public places, for gratuities, which are generally in the form of money and edibles...
at Circular Quay, performing for crowds disembarking from
Manly FerryManly ferry services connect the suburb of Manly, New South Wales with Circular Quay by commuter ferry. The services are provided by Sydney Ferries Corporation, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. The route is coloured light blue on the current Sydney Ferries network map. Vessels in the...
, and toured in Westfield shopping centres. They performed at pre-schools, for audiences of 300 to 400 people, and were promoted by local
playgroupsA pre-school playgroup, or in everyday usage just a playgroup, is an organised group providing care and socialisation for children under five. The term is widely used in the United Kingdom. Playgroups are less formal than the pre-school education of nursery schools...
or
nursing mothers' associationsThe Australian Breastfeeding Association is an Australian organisation of people interested in the promotion and protection of breastfeeding. Amongst these are breastfeeding women and their partners and health professionals such as doctors, lactation consultants and midwives...
with whom they split their proceeds. In 1993, Field, Cook, and Page, along with Fatt, decided to give up teaching for a year to focus on performing full-time to see if they could make a living out of it.
As Fatt reported, "it was very much a cottage industry". They served as their own roadies and travelled in Fatt's van, towing a trailer with borrowed equipment. Fatt did their bookkeeping on an old computer the first five to six years of the group's existence. They did their own merchandising, which consisted of selling albums, toys, and t-shirts out of a suitcase set up on the back of a trailer. The group decided, based upon their previous experiences in the music industry, that they would finance everything themselves and keep the rights to every song, video, and album they produced. John Field and Mike Conway, who later became The Wiggles' general manager, performed with them. Their act was later augmented with supporting characters: the "friendly pirate" Captain Feathersword and the animal characters Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, and Wags the Dog. These characters were initially performed by the original members of The Wiggles: Field played Captain Feathersword and Wags; Cook played Dorothy; and Fatt played Henry.
The Wiggles, called by their first names when they performed, adopted colour-coded shirts: Greg in yellow, Murray in red, Jeff in purple, and Anthony in blue. Anthony originally wore green but changed to avoid clashing with Dorothy the Dinosaur. Additionally, each Wiggle developed a "schtick" based on their actual behaviours: Greg performed magic tricks; Murray played the guitar; Jeff fell asleep (as
Sam MoranSam Moran is an Australian entertainer best known for being a member of the children's band The Wiggles. He was born in Sydney and raised in Wagga Wagga.-Career:...
said, "Jeff really does fall asleep"); Anthony liked to eat. These behaviours evolved into caricatures, and served the same purpose as the uniforms in differentiating their characters and making them memorable to young children.
Simple movements were developed by choreographer Leeanne Ashley to accompany each song. One of these simple movements, their signature finger-wagging move, was created by Cook after seeing professional bowlers do it on television. It became the group's policy to use this pose when being photographed with children. They insisted that touching children, no matter how innocently, was inappropriate. The use of the pose protected them from possible litigation; as
Paul PaddickPaul Paddick is an Australian actor. Paddick is best known for his portrayal of Captain Feathersword, "the friendly pirate," a character associated with the children's band The Wiggles....
has explained, "There is no doubting where their hands are". The group incorporated more dancing into their performances after the birth of Field's oldest daughter in 2004. "So [The] Wiggles have kind of become a bit more, dare I say, girly. Dorothy (the Dinosaur) does ballet now and we dance as well a lot more than we did", Field reported. The group's performances were very energetic, and they intentionally made mistakes in their dance moves in order to identify more with their young audience.
The Wiggles have always invited children with special needs and their families to pre-concert "meet and greet" sessions. According to Fatt, many parents of these children have reported that The Wiggles' music has enhanced their lives, and that children with
autismAutism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
"respond to [The] Wiggles and nothing else". Since 1995, The Wiggles have visited and performed for patients at the
Sydney Children's HospitalSydney Children's Hospital is an Australian children's hospital located in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales.On 1 July 2010 it became part of the newly formed 'Sydney Children's Hospital Network incorporating the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children'.The Sydney Children's Hospital is...
every Christmas morning. The group has always had a strict code of conduct based on
zero toleranceZero tolerance imposes automatic punishment for infractions of a stated rule, with the intention of eliminating undesirable conduct. Zero-tolerance policies forbid persons in positions of authority from exercising discretion or changing punishments to fit the circumstances subjectively; they are...
of drug use, drinking, smoking, or bad language by any employee of their organisation. They avoided any possibility of over-extending their brand by licensing products that correlated with their image, like endorsing healthy foods, and by remaining within the preschool and family markets.
Success at home and abroad
Through the rest of the 1990s, The Wiggles maintained a busy recording and touring schedule, releasing multiple albums and home videos, and performing to increasingly large audiences in Australia and New Zealand as they re-introduced themselves to a new audience of children every three years. At first, their popularity grew through, as Fatt reported, "word of mouth". They produced a new album and video each year and toured to promote it. By 1995, they had set records for video and music sales. In 1997, Twentieth Century Fox produced a feature-length film,
The Wiggles MovieThe Wiggles Movie is a 1997 children's movie/musical by 20th Century Fox and Gladusaurus Productions. This is the first and only theatrical feature-length film starring The Wiggles...
, which became the fifth-highest grossing Australian film of 1998.
In spite of their early success, Paul Field reported that The Wiggles were unable to produce a television program on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, where they felt they would receive the most exposure to the pre-school market. They filmed a television pilot for the ABC, but as
The Sydney Morning HeraldThe Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
(SMH) reported in 2002, "the project never got off the ground due to irreconcilable artistic differences". Also according to the SMH, the ABC told them that they could not communicate with children, and that the members of the group should "not speak, just sing". The ABC insisted that instead of what the SMH called their "trademark colourful skivvies and black trousers", they wear shorts and caps. The Wiggles responded to this criticism by creating thirteen episodes of a self-produced television series,
The Wiggles, which they funded from their tours and video sales. They sold the program to Australia's
Channel SevenThe Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
, and then moved it to the ABC in 1998 and to the
Disney ChannelFor the Disney Channel in other countries, see Disney Channel . For the original Disney Channel, see Disney Channel.Disney Channel Australia is a television channel that is broadcast in Australia and New Zealand...
in 1999.
[. Retrieved 2007-11-25.] They continued their practice of featuring toddlers as performers in these early programs.
In 1998, Disney arranged for the group to perform at
DisneylandDisneyland Park is a theme park located in Anaheim, California, owned and operated by the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division of the Walt Disney Company. Known as Disneyland when it opened on July 18, 1955, and still almost universally referred to by that name, it is the only theme park to be...
, where they were discovered by
Lyrick StudiosLyrick Studios, Inc. is an American video production and distribution company founded in 1991 and based in Allen, Texas. The company was best known for its distribution of home videos, audio products and children's books and toys for the children's television series Barney & Friends and...
, the producers of
Barney & FriendsBarney and Friends, also referred to by HiT Entertainment as Barney the Friendly Dinosaur, is an independent children's television show produced in the United States, aimed at children from ages 1-8...
. Lyrick was reluctant to sponsor The Wiggles at first, thinking that the band members' Australian accents might not be acceptable to American audiences, but changed their minds when they tested The Wiggles' videos with American children. Lyrick began to distribute Wiggles videos in the US, advertised them in their other videos, and hired the group to perform during the intermission of
Barney Live stage shows in the US.
As they had done in Australia, The Wiggles depended upon grass-roots efforts to promote themselves in the US. Some of their first appearances were at Blockbuster Video parking lots to small audiences—as Fatt said, "a dozen people". The videos were distributed in boutique stores such as FAO Schwartz and
Zany BrainyZany Brainy was a United States retail store chain owned by FAO Schwarz that sold educational toys and multi-media products aimed at children ages 4–12...
, and on-line. They performed at small venues such as church halls and 500 seat theatres in Brooklyn and New Jersey. When tickets to their shows sold out, they moved to larger arenas such as the Beacon Theatre and
Madison Square GardenMadison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
.
The Wiggles' "strong connection" with the US was "forged in the shell-shocked weeks after the
terrorist attacksThe September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
on New York City in 2001," when the group performed there, even when other acts cancelled their tours. Paul Field reported that "New York has really embraced them. It was a kind of watershed". The decision earned them respect and loyalty in the US. According to Cook, the press proclaimed that they were braver than many Australian sports teams that had cancelled their appearances. They performed 12 sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in 2003, and have appeared in the
Macy's Thanksgiving Day ParadeThe Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, often shortened to Macy's Day Parade, is an annual parade presented by Macy's. The tradition started in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States along with America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit, and four years younger than...
, the first time in 2001. In 2003, 1 November was declared "Wiggles Day" in New York City. Initially, The Wiggles performed 520 shows per year all over the world.
[By 2011, the group's 20th anniversary, they were performing 350—400 shows a year.]
Strong sales of The Wiggles videos eventually caught the attention of the
Disney ChannelDisney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
, who was impressed by their "strong pro-social message". In January 2002, Disney began showing a Wiggles video clip between programs of its morning
Playhouse DisneyPlayhouse Disney was Disney Channel's television block for programs aimed at entertaining preschool aged children, often airing as its own channel outside the United States. It was introduced in 1997 after Disney Channel's move to basic cable from premium cable, with a target audience of children...
block. By June of that year, the popularity of these
interstitialsIn television programming, an interstitial program refers to a short program which is often shown between movies or other events, e.g. a cast interview after movies on premium channels...
prompted the Disney Channel to add both seasons of "The Wiggles" to the
Playhouse Disney program schedule, showing full episodes multiple times per day. In 2002, The Wiggles filmed four seasons worth of shows exclusively with the ABC: "Lights, Camera, Action, Wiggles" aired on the
ABCThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
in 2003, "The Wiggles Show" in 2004 and 2005, and "Wiggle and Learn" in 2008.
The network called them "the most successful property that the ABC has represented in the pre-school genre". Paul Field reported that a meeting at a New York licensing fair with Grahame Grassby, the ABC's acting director of enterprises, led to the ABC's "enthusiastic" agreement to produce The Wiggles' TV shows.
Their success in music and television has led to extensive merchandising of Wiggles-branded books, toys, clothing, and other products for children by the Toronto-based toy company
Spin MasterSpin Master is a children's entertainment company based in Toronto, Canada.- Entertainment :In 2008, Spin Master Ltd. partnered with Cartoon Network Enterprises to create "multi-category consumer products programs for Spin Master's portfolio of brands." The company employs over 700 people in...
since 2003. In 2005, the group franchised its concept to other countries. They started in
TaiwanTaiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, because as Cook stated, they thought the country "was a small enough place, in case it didn't work out". The Taiwanese group was successful, so they branched out to
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, casting Spanish-speaking Australians. The Wiggles ceased to pursue additional franchising when they learned that viewers in other countries preferred the original versions of their songs and programs because they helped children learn English.
In 2007, The Wiggles opened their own recording and film studios in Sydney, called "Hot Potato Studios". They were the first pre-school production company in Australia to shoot their videos and TV programs in
high-definitionHigh-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
. The Wiggles became formally
consolidatedConsolidation or amalgamation is the act of merging many things into one. In business, it often refers to the mergers and acquisitions of many smaller companies into much larger ones. In the context of financial accounting, consolidation refers to the aggregation of financial statements of a group...
in 2005. The group's board of directors consisted of the original three members, Paul Field, who has been general manager of operations since the group was formed and their manager since the mid-1990s, and Mike Conway, who had worked for
Ernst & YoungErnst & Young is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms, along with Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers ....
in England and become their general manager in 2001.
Greg Page retirement
In December 2005, lead singer and founding member Page, at age 33, underwent a double hernia operation. He withdrew from The Wiggles' US tour in June 2006 after suffering fainting spells, lethargy, nausea, and loss of balance. He returned to Australia, where doctors diagnosed his condition as
orthostatic intoleranceOrthostatic intolerance is a subcategory of dysautonomia, a disorder of the autonomic nervous system occurring when an individual stands up....
, a chronic but not life-threatening condition. Page's final performance with The Wiggles was in
Kingston, Rhode IslandKingston is a village and a census-designated place in the town of South Kingstown, Rhode Island, United States, and the site of the main campus of the University of Rhode Island. Much of the village center is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Kingston Village Historic...
.
On 30 November 2006, the Wiggles announced Page's retirement from the group. "I’ll miss being a part of The Wiggles very much, but this is the right decision because it will allow me to focus on managing my health", Page said in a taped message posted on the group's webpage. Page was replaced by
Sam MoranSam Moran is an Australian entertainer best known for being a member of the children's band The Wiggles. He was born in Sydney and raised in Wagga Wagga.-Career:...
, who had served as an understudy for The Wiggles for five years and had already stood in for Page for 150 shows. Initially, The Wiggles struggled over their decision to replace Page, but they decided to continue as a group because they thought that was what their young audience would want. They decided to be "honest" with their audience about Page's illness because it provided a "teachable moment" and an opportunity to demonstrate to young children that it was "part of life", as Fatt said.
Sam Moran era
Although Moran's transition as The Wiggles' lead singer was "smooth" for the young children of their audience, it was more difficult for their parents. Moran reported that "most children understood". Field reported that by 2011, due to the ever-changing nature of their audience, most of their young fans did not know Page, just as their older fans were unaware of Moran. Cook reported that Moran did well as a Wiggle, and that the addition of Moran changed their sound, forced the group to rethink things, and made the band stronger. Although Moran struggled with the spontaneity of The Wiggles' stage performances, Cook said, "We’ve never felt like we had to carry him or anything. He’s a smart guy. But it is a bit different, just having a different person on stage". Moran's background in
musical theatreMusical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
was different from that of his band mates, so The Wiggles had to change the way they recorded their music. At sound checks, their practice was to improvise, but Moran often did not know the songs the other three used at those times. Cook reported that it took some time for Moran, but a year after Page's retirement stated, "We’re slowly educating each other". Moran was featured in his first DVD and CD as a member of the group in early 2008, and a sixth season of The Wiggles' television series featuring Moran was filmed and began airing in Australia.
In September 2005, Australia's largest theme park,
DreamworldDreamworld is a large theme park situated on the Gold Coast in Queensland. It is currently Australia's largest theme park with over 27 rides including 4 roller coasters. The park is made up of several themed lands: Ocean Parade, Kid's World, Wiggles World, Gold Rush Country, Rocky Hollow, Tiger...
in
QueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, opened a "Wiggles World" section, which included a Big Red Car ride and a full set for production purposes. The band received licensing rights and sign-off rights for every aspect of the section's operation. Staff at Dreamworld had to take a "Wiggles boot camp", to ensure they followed The Wiggles' code of conduct when dealing with children and their families. Driven by the Dreamworld success,
Six FlagsSix Flags Entertainment Corp. is the world's largest amusement park corporation based on quantity of properties and the fifth most popular in terms of attendance. The company maintains 14 properties located throughout North America, including theme parks, thrill parks, water parks and family...
opened its first "Wiggles World" section at their largest theme park at Jackson, New Jersey in April 2007, and planned to open 20 more at its parks across the U.S. in the next decade. The sections emphasised family involvement; they offered joint rides on which parents and children could equally participate. In 2008, Six Flags announced their intentions to open parks with Wiggles World sections in
DubaiDubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
and across the
Arab worldThe Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
.
At the end of 2007, The Wiggles donated their complete back catalogue of 27 master tapes to Australia's
National Film and Sound ArchiveThe National Film and Sound Archive is Australia’s audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national collection of audiovisual materials and related items...
. Also in 2007, The Wiggles organisation built a
digital recordingIn digital recording, digital audio and digital video is directly recorded to a storage device as a stream of discrete numbers, representing the changes in air pressure for audio and chroma and luminance values for video through time, thus making an abstract template for the original sound or...
and television studio in Sydney called "Hot Potato Studios", for the purpose of creating their own DVDs and CDs. In 2008, they began to offer downloads of Wiggles ringtones and songs, and streaming video on an
on-demandVideo on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
website. By April 2009, however, The Wiggles began charging for access to many previously free services on their website, but after fan complaints, the free message board was reinstated. Also in 2008, The Wiggles made a deal with
Volkswagen (VW)Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
to help the company promote its automobiles. Road safety brochures were made available at Wiggles concerts and VW dealerships.
In 2009, in order to, as Cook put it, "to try something else and to freshen up our brand a bit", The Wiggles ended their long relationship with the Disney Channel when they entered into a five-year long partnership with the digital cable channel
SproutPBS Kids Sprout is a U.S. digital cable television channel, video-on-demand service, and website providing PBS Kids shows and original programming for preschoolers and their families...
. They also aired previous episodes of their show on the channel, created and hosted a three-hour block of programming that aired in the mornings, and created online and on-demand content. Sprout called the partnership "Our biggest acquisition ...that Sprout has ever done". Cook stated that the move was not "acrimonious", and although the group owed much of their early success to Disney, that it "was just business". The first decade of the 21st century ended with The Wiggles expanding their brand by creating new shows, including
The Dorothy the Dinosaur Show in countries where The Wiggles did not appear. They also produced
Baby Antonio Circus in 2009, a three-minute show starring Field's oldest son.
In December 2010, Cinemalive beamed a Wiggles concert live from
Acer ArenaThe Allphones Arena is a large entertainment and sporting complex located in Sydney, Australia. It is situated in Sydney Olympic Park, and was completed in 1999 as part of the facilities for the 2000 Summer Olympics....
into movie theatres all over Australia, for children and their families unable to attend their shows. The Wiggles celebrated their 20th anniversary with
circusA circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
-themed shows and performances throughout the Australian
outbackThe Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia, term colloquially can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush".-Overview:The outback is home to a...
in an actual circus tent.
Characters
Aside from the four Wiggles, four secondary characters usually appear in their television series, videos, and live concerts. These characters were developed in the 1990s and were originally played by group members and by Anthony Field's brother Paul, the band's manager. They are now played by hired actors, occasionally touring without The Wiggles as "Dorothy the Dinosaur and Friends". In 1998, Moran hosted this show before becoming Page's understudy.
Dorothy the Dinosaur
Dorothy is a "rososaurus", a "yellow-spotted herbivorous green dinosaur with surprisingly scary teeth". She lives in a pink and purple house with her own Rosy Orchestra and a rose garden in her backyard. She loves to eat roses and dance the
balletBallet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
. She enjoys serving guests rose-derived treats such as "rosy tea". Dorothy was part of the band's early stage shows, and was originally played by Cook; she has been played by Leeanne Ashley and
Lyn MoranLyn Moran is an American entertainer best known for being a cast member of the children's performing group The Wiggles. She was born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina....
. South Australian Carolyn Ferrie, a trained
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singer and dancer, has provided her voice since 1997, when she worked with Anthony Field on an Irish music Wiggles CD. Ferrie described Dorothy as "a dinosaur superstar ... very open, friendly, and warm. She is like a mother figure even though she is only meant to be five, and kids really respond to her ... She is calm and mothering but friendly as well. She's young and still playful but has got a motherly feeling to her". Ferrie insisted that Dorothy "is number one after the boys including Captain Feathersword, in terms of who kids say they love". Dorothy has a distinctive, trill-like, descending laugh created by Ferrie.
In 2007, Dorothy began to star in her own television show in Australia. The show had a distinct look and sound. Whereas The Wiggles' TV shows were "hyper-real and cartoonish" and had a pop sound, Dorothy's show was "really rich and beautiful looking" and based its sound on orchestral music. Dorothy was the focus of her own touring production, which performed in smaller cities The Wiggles could no longer perform. The production, based upon the TV show, was written by Field, and Moran was the host of this show before he joined the band. Lyn Stuckey, who later married Moran, played Dorothy.
Captain Feathersword
Captain Feathersword, "the friendly pirate", wears a hat, patch, and puffy shirt and wields a "feathery saber". The Captain was created because The Wiggles understood that young children, especially boys, like pirates; they gave him a "feathersword" because they wanted him to be nonviolent. Field originated the role, and
Paul PaddickPaul Paddick is an Australian actor. Paddick is best known for his portrayal of Captain Feathersword, "the friendly pirate," a character associated with the children's band The Wiggles....
, whom Field called "just as funny offstage as on", began playing him in 1993. At first, Paddick's role was minor, but it eventually evolved, and he has been called "the Fifth Wiggle". For many parents, his vocal impersonations were "the high point of the Wiggles stage show" and included singers
Mick JaggerSir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
,
CherCher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
,
Placido DomingoPlácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
and
James HetfieldJames Alan Hetfield is the rhythm guitarist, co-founder, main songwriter, and lead vocalist for the American heavy metal band Metallica. Hetfield co-founded Metallica in October 1981 after answering a classified advertisement by drummer Lars Ulrich in the Los Angeles newspaper The Recycler,...
.
Henry the Octopus
Introduced in 1992, Henry the Octopus, who directs an underwater band, likes to sing and to breakdance with his eight legs. The character was developed by Fatt, who originally served as Henry's voice, although Paddick took over the role in the mid-2000s.
[The physical Henry has been played by Reem Hanwell, Kristy Talbot, and Katherine Patrick, among others. Articles retrieved on 2008-05-24.]
Wags the Dog
Wags is a tall, brown, furry dog with floppy ears and a happy face. He "loves to sing and dance and kids bring 'bones' that the Wiggly dancers collect from the audience". The last of the four characters to be introduced, Wags was originally played by Field.
[Wags has also been played by Edward Rooke, Andrew McCourt, Kristy Talbot, and Paddick. Articles retrieved on 2008-05-24.]
Minor characters
For their stage shows, The Wiggles used two 16-metre (52 ft) trucks, three tour buses, a cast of 13 dancers, and 10 permanent crew members. The "Wiggly dancers" have always made up a major part of the Wiggles shows and TV programs and play many of the minor roles. Minor characters of note include The Cook (portrayed by Anthony Field's late father, John, and
Crowded HouseCrowded House are a rock band, formed in Melbourne, Australia and led by New Zealand singer-songwriter Neil Finn. Finn is the primary songwriter and creative director of the band, having led it through several incarnations, drawing members from New Zealand , Australia and the United States...
late drummer
Paul HesterPaul Newell Hester was an Australian musician and television personality; he was the drummer for the related bands Split Enz and Crowded House.-The early years:...
), Professor Singalottasonga, and Dapper Dave (both played by Moran), and Officer Beaples and Fiona Fitbelly (both played by Leanne Halloran).
Musical style
The Wiggles have written new music each year since their inception; they have tended to sequester themselves for a month each summer and write three albums' worth of original children's music based on simple concepts familiar to young children, and upon several genres of music and types of instruments. Most of their songs were short and started with the chorus because the group believed that it was necessary to provide young children with the topic of each song in its first few lines. They wrote songs individually at first, but eventually wrote them as a group, often with John Field, trumpet player Dominic Lindsay, and Paddick.
John FogertyJohn Cameron Fogerty is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock/roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival and as a #1 solo recording artist. Fogerty has a rare distinction of being named on Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest...
of
Creedence Clearwater RevivalCreedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums....
, who appeared in a Wiggles video in 2002, was "very impressed" with their songwriting, especially with their
drum soundTo hear the shape of a drum is to infer information about the shape of the drumhead from the sound it makes, i.e., from the list of basic harmonics, via the use of mathematical theory...
.
According to Field, the transition from writing music for an adult rock band to writing children's music was not a big one for The Wiggles. "The Wiggles music isn't all that far removed from what we did in The Cockroaches, just a different subject matter," Field stated. "The Cockroaches sing about girls and love and stuff like that; The Wiggles sing about hot potatoes and cold spaghetti." For example, they approached a topic like eating as they would in a pre-school setting, including encouraging children to eat healthy foods. Field also reported that because both The Wiggles and The Cockroaches were inspired by 60s pop music, the main difference between the groups was "just the lyrics". The Wiggles' songs were influenced by
nursery rhymeThe term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...
s, folk music, and rock music that both children and their parents could enjoy. Moran stated that The Wiggles wrote songs they liked and would listen to, and then made them "child-appropriate".
Page reported, "First and foremost, we're entertainers". The Wiggles captured the interest of children by first entertaining them, and then by presenting them with educational messages. The group decided to write and perform children's music that was different than what had been done in the genre previously. They were not tied to one style or genre of music and often experimented in the
studioA recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
; while some of their recordings were orchestral, others had a more live feel. The group was aware that their songs were often children's first exposure to music. Cook was conscious that he was probably the first guitarist children would see, and said, "I always think that if it inspires kids to play guitar later on that would be great. I think it would be really nice if in 15 years I read that somebody got into guitar playing because of [The] Wiggles".
Educational theory
We have a license to be silly, and a lot of what we do is about joy.
—Murray Cook, 2010
The concepts of early childhood development and how young children learn influenced The Wiggles' songwriting and simple choreography in their stage shows, videos, and television programs. They believed that young children were egocentric, so The Wiggles stared continually into the camera in their videos and TV shows. They explained every action because they believed that young children needed to be told what to expect in order to feel safe. Their stage shows were full of action and audience participation. The group understood that challenging young children to engage in difficult tasks is more effective than simply telling them to do it. From the group's inception, they decided to "operate from the premise that a young child has a short attention span, is curious about a limited number of objects and activities, loves having a job to do and is thrilled by mastering basic movements".
The Wiggles have attempted to empower children from the group's inception. For example, before each performance, they greet their audience with "Hello everyone", instead of "Hello, boys and girls" because as Paul Field has explained, they feel the second greeting "unnecessarily separates children and has undertones of condescension". Scholar Kathleen Warren, the group's former professor at Macquarie University, believed that the group empowered children by asking their audience to "Wake up Jeff" when Fatt pretended to fall asleep.
[Warren has been a consultant for The Wiggles since Field, Cook, and Page were her students at Macquarie University.] Warren stated that asking children to interrupt Fatt's slumber helped them build confidence and to feel more in control of their lives. Fatt was the only original member of The Wiggles without a background in early childhood education; he explained that was the reason falling asleep was chosen as his schtick, "because it was a way of getting me involved in the shows without actually having to do anything". Paul Field reported that children in The Wiggles' audience felt "great excitement" and were disappointed if not given the opportunity to help Jeff in this way.
Between 1999 and 2003, to test the group's appeal across cultures, Warren used one of The Wiggles' CDs as an educational tool in a village near
MadangMadang is the capital of Madang Province and is a town with a population of 27,420 on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. It was first settled by the Germans in the 19th century....
, on the north coast of
Papua New GuineaPapua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
. She found that the Madangese children were able to relate to the group's songs, and that they were able to sing along and to participate in their simple choreography. Although The Wiggles' recorded and performed songs, dances, and musical styles from different cultures and languages, The Wiggles did not find that adapting their music to non-Australian cultures was necessary to reach children in other countries.
Reception
The Wiggles' songs are sung and played in pre-schools all around the world, which according to Paul Field, is the "equivalent of having the Stones cover one of your songs". They were named Australia's richest entertainers by
Business Review WeeklyBRW is an Australian weekly business magazine published by the Fairfax Media group. It regularly compiles lists which rank corporations and individuals according to various criteria, similar to Fortune magazine in the United States.BRW provides news and commentary on the economy, business and...
(BRW) for four years in a row (2004–2008), and earned A$45 million in 2009, when they were third on BRW's annual list. By 2008, The Wiggles had earned seventeen
goldMusic recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
, twelve
platinumMusic recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
, three double-platinum, and ten multi-platinum awards for sales of over 17 million DVDs and four million CDs. They performed for over 1.5 million children in the US between 2005 and 2008. They have earned ADSDA's award for Highest Selling Children's Album four times. In 2007, the group won two
APRAThe Australasian Performing Right Association is a copyright collective representing New Zealand and Australian composers, lyricists and music publishers. The association's head offices located in Sydney Australia, and it has branch offices in Auckland, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth...
awards: the International Achievement Award and the Most Performed Screen Composer - Overseas award. They have been nominated for
ARIA'sThe Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
Best Children's Album award fifteen times, and won the award nine times.
[They won in 1995]The Ninth Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards was held on 20 October 1995 at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre. There had been a 19-month gap since the previous award ceremony which was moved to be "closer to the business end of the music industry's year"...
for Big Red Car, in 1996The 10th Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards was held on 30 September 1996 at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre...
for Wake Up Jeff!, in 1998The 12th Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards was held on 20 October 1998 at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre...
for Toot Toot!, in 2005The 19th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards were held on 23 October 2005 at the Sydney Superdome at the Sydney Olympic Park complex, thus continuing the previous year's innovation of televising the awards on Sunday evening...
for Live Hot Potatoes, in 2006The 20th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards were held on 29 October 2006 at the Acer Arena at the Sydney Olympic Park complex...
for Racing to the Rainbow, in 2007The 21st Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards were held on 28 October 2007 at the Acer Arena at the Sydney Olympic Park complex. Rove McManus was the host of the event...
for Pop Go The Wiggles, in 2008The 22nd Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards took place on 19 October 2008...
for You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, in 2009The 23rd Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards took place on 26 November 2009 at the Acer Arena at the Sydney Olympic Park complex. The ceremony was telecast on the Nine Network at 8:30pm that night...
for Go Bananas!, in 2010The 24th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards are a series of award ceremonies which included the 2010 ARIA Artisan Awards, ARIA Hall of Fame Awards, ARIA Fine Arts Awards and ARIA Awards. The latter ceremony took place on 7 November at the Sydney Opera House and was...
for Lets Eat!http://www.ariaawards.com.au/history-by-artist.php?letter=W&artist=Wiggles%20%20The In
2003The 17th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards were held on 21 October 2003 at the Sydney Superdome.-ARIA Awards:*Album of the Year**Powderfinger – Vulture Street...
, they received ARIA's Outstanding Achievement Award "for their significant achievements in the industry from their early days as The Cockroaches to their current global success in children's entertainment".
In 2003, when the group performed at
Madison Square GardenMadison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
, front-row tickets were sold for US$500, in spite of The Wiggles' efforts to reduce
scalpingTicket resale is the act of reselling tickets for admission to events. Tickets are bought from licensed sellers and are then sold for a price determined by the individual or company in possession of the tickets. Tickets sold through secondary sources may be sold for less or more than their face...
by limiting the number of seats sold per transaction. In 2008, the group found themselves in the midst of what
The Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
called a "ticketing scandal"; scalpers tried to sell a A$19 ticket on
eBayeBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
for almost A$2,000 and a set of three tickets for A$315 for concerts in
MelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, and a group of three tickets to a Wiggles UNICEF charity concert in Sydney had a price tag of A$510. The tickets were taken off eBay and voided.
In what Paul Field called "one of the highlights of their 15 years of being together", The Wiggles were awarded an honorary doctorate degree from
Australian Catholic UniversityAustralian Catholic University is a national public university. It has six campuses and offers programs in five faculties throughout Australia.-History:...
in 2006. Cook gave the commencement speech for the graduates. They were awarded another honorary doctoral degree in 2009 from their alma mater,
Macquarie UniversityMacquarie University is an Australian public teaching and research university located in Sydney, with its main campus situated in Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of Sydney...
.
The group was named UNICEF goodwill ambassadors in early 2008. In 2010, the four original members of The Wiggles were appointed Members in the
Order of AustraliaThe Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
for their service to the arts in Australia, especially children's entertainment, and for their contributions and support of several charities. They called the honour their "biggest recognition yet".