The Wiggles are an Australian band that specializes in children's entertainment. Since its formation in 1991, the group has achieved worldwide success with its children's albums, videos, television series and concert appearances.

The Wiggles are an Australian band that specializes in children's entertainment. Since its formation in 1991, the group has achieved worldwide success with its children's albums, videos, television series and concert appearances.

According to Business Review Weekly magazine, The Wiggles were Australia's highest grossing entertainers for the year 2005, earning more than AC/DC and Nicole Kidman combined.
Formation
Anthony Field and Jeff Fatt had been members of the Cockroaches, a popular pub rock band which had scored a number of Top 40 hits in Australia during the 1980s.

After the Cockroaches disbanded in 1988, Field enrolled at the Institute of Early Childhood Studies at Macquarie University in Sydney. One of only a few male students in the program, Field soon met two of the other men: Greg Page and Murray Cook, both former musicians. Page, the youngest of the group, had come into the program straight from high school, while Cook and Field were mature-age students. Cook had played bass in a minor Sydney pop band, Finger Guns, while also working as a clerk at the Australian Taxation Office.

The group initially teamed up to produce a music performance project for their studies, but they soon began working towards the goal of recording a children's music album. Needing a keyboardist, Field asked his old bandmate, Jeff Fatt, to help out. (Fatt's reply was "Sure, but how long will it take...."). The group received songwriting help from John Field, Anthony's brother and former bandmate, as they reworked a few of the old Cockroaches tunes into children's songs. For example, "Do the Monkey" was originally a Cockroaches song with different lyrics. Another Cockroaches song, "Get Ready To Wiggle", inspired the new band's name.

The band also received keyboards and songwriting assistance from fellow Macquarie student Phillip Wilcher, a so-called 'fifth Wiggle' who left the group to pursue a career in classical music shortly after the release of the Wiggles' 1991 self-titled debut album.

Early career
The Wiggles began their career playing at pre-schools and childcare centres. The group shared their receipts for their shows with the centres, who were able to use the popular Wiggles concerts as lucrative fund-raising events.

The group was able to capitalise on the contacts and goodwill that The Cockroaches had built up during the 1980s — that band toured regularly throughout Australia — and they also built up their performance expertise and public exposure with occasional busking around Sydney. Their shows were a hit with young audiences, and they found themselves in regular demand.

Early on, they adopted differently coloured skivvys for each member -- Greg in yellow, Murray in red, Jeff in purple, and Anthony in blue. (Anthony initially wore a green shirt). The colour coding assisted their recognition by very young children, and they invariably wear the Wiggles 'uniform' when appearing as The Wiggles in the media or in public.

The basic act was later augmented with supporting characters — the "friendly pirate" Captain Feathersword (Paul Paddick) and the animal characters Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, and Wags the Dog.

 

National, then international success
Through the rest of the 1990s, the Wiggles maintained a busy recording and touring schedule, releasing multiple albums, home videos, and performing to increasingly large audiences in Australia and New Zealand. They soon developed a productive alliance with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which developed a successful Australian television series (Lights, Camera, Action, Wiggles!) featuring the band. In television appearances, they established an easily understood persona for each band member: Murray loves playing the guitar, Anthony loves food, Jeff is always falling asleep, while Greg loves to sing and drives the Big Red Car.

Twentieth Century Fox produced a feature-length film The Wiggles Movie, which premiered in Australia in December 1997 and went on to become the fifth-highest grossing Australian film of 1998. (The film was later released on video and DVD in the U.S. as "The Wiggles Magical Adventure: A Wiggly Movie").

The band first gained headway in the United States in the late 1990s by piggybacking on the success of the popular television program Barney & Friends. Lyrick Studios, the producers of Barney, began distributing Wiggles videos in the U.S. and prominently advertising them in Barney videos. (Lyrick Studios was later acquired by HIT Entertainment). The Wiggles also opened for Barney during U.S. tours.

Strong U.S. sales of the Wiggles videos eventually caught the attention of the Disney Channel. In January 2002, they began showing a Wiggles video clip in between programs of its morning Playhouse Disney block. By June of that year, the popularity of these interstitials prompted Disney Channel to add the Wiggles television series to the Playhouse Disney program schedule, showing full episodes multiple times per day.

The Wiggles have gone on to perform a string of sold-out shows at both Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall, they have appeared multiple times on NBC's Today show and the Regis Philbin talk show, and they have participated in multiple Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades in New York City.

In 2002, the Wiggles and the late Crocodile Hunter host Steve Irwin teamed up for a DVD and album, Wiggly Safari. The video also featured appearances by Terri and Bindi Sue Irwin as well as songs about the animals at the Australia Zoo.

The Wiggles' success in music and television has led to extensive merchandising of Wiggles-branded books, toys, clothing, and other products for children. The group has begun franchising its concept to non-English speaking countries, with the idea already successfully sold in Taiwan, which now has its own Taiwanese Wiggles. After visits to Mexico and Puerto Rico, auditions for a Spanish-speaking version of the group were held in Australia, with results of the casting pending. The Wiggles' success has also spawned imitators in Australia, including The Hooley Dooleys (1995) and the 'concept' children's group Hi-5 (1999).

In 2001 The Wiggles were reported to have earned more than A$14 million, a sum that had grown to Aud$45 million by 2004.

Greg Page leaves the Wiggles

During a US tour in summer 2006, lead singer and founding member Greg Page collapsed before a show in Rhode Island. At other times he complained of vertigo, fainting, and loss of balance. He returned to Australia, where doctors diagnosed his condition as orthostatic intolerance, a chronic but not life-threatening condition.

Sam Moran Joins the Wiggles

On 30 November 2006, the Wiggles announced Page's retirement from the group "to focus on managing his health". Page was replaced by Sam Moran, who served as an understudy for the Wiggles for five years and had already stood in for Page on some 150 shows. Greg officially handed over his yellow skivvy (shirt) to Sam in a video posted on the Wiggles' official website.

Latest activity
In May 2007, the Six Flags Great America theme park in Illinois as well as Six Flags Great Adventure theme park in New Jersey and Six Flags New England in Agawam, Massachusetts will open "Wiggles World", a new area of the park featuring Wiggles-themed rides and other attractions designed for younger children. Six Flags plans to add Wiggles Worlds to its other U.S. theme parks over the next five years. The plans are very similar to the Wiggles World that opened at the Dreamworld theme park in Queensland, Australia in September 2005.[

Characters

Aside from the four Wiggles, there are four secondary characters that usually appear in their videos and live concerts. They were developed in the early 1990s, and were originally played by group members and by Anthony's brother Paul Field, the band's manager. They are now played by hired actors, occasionally touring without The Wiggles as "Dorothy The Dinosaur And Friends."

 Dorothy the Dinosaur
Dorothy is a large green dinosaur with yellow spots. She wears a floppy white hat and enjoys eating roses. Dorothy the Dinosaur is 5 years old, and is very wise for her age. Her birthday is November 3. She loves dancing, and is known to do ballet, Irish, Scottish, and line dancing. She loves her birthday as The Wiggles always make it a very special fun day for her. Dorothy has a heart of gold and is a very friendly dinosaur. She also likes to dance around with the kids. She is a big green dinosaur with some freakishly yellow spots. Some people are kind of afraid of her but then they realize her true friendly side.


 Wags the Dog
Wags is a tall, brown, furry dog with floppy ears and a happy face. He enjoys eating, and is said to keep The Wiggles up all night if he gets hungry. Wags also enjoys digging in his garden. Wags cannot talk (except in mental soliloquies that only the audience can hear), but The Wiggles understand him when he barks. Wags is a skilled Tango dancer. He believes everyone is his friend and is said to love having a good time. His birthday is October 27.


 Henry the Octopus
Henry is a fun-loving octopus with purple skin. He wears tartan clothes, a straw hat and black polished shoes on the end of every tentacle. Henry likes to wave to all his friends simultaneously, an easily accomplished feat considering his eight tentacles. Henry lives under the sea and is the leader of the Underwater Big Band. He is said to have a bubbly personality and loves a good joke!


 Captain Feathersword
Captain Feathersword is a friendly pirate, and is characterised by his pirate coat and hat, eyepatch and has a sword composed of feathers (hence the name Feathersword.). His birthday is February 4.

Originally played by Anthony Field and his brother Paul Field, since 1995 Captain Feathersword has been played exclusively by Paul Paddick. Paddick is a skilled stage entertainer and at live Wiggles shows usually adds an interlude for the entertainment of the parents in the audience, including for example Elvis impersonations.

 Minor characters
Some additional characters have been occasionally featured in Wiggles videos and television series.

The Cook was originally portrayed by Field's late father, John, and later played by former Crowded House drummer, the late Paul Hester.

Wally the Magician was featured in The Wiggles Movie. Despite his regular tries, Wally fails at being a great magician. He longs to be like his grandfather Waldo the Great, and finally realized his dream after winning a magic competition.

Officer Beaples, dressed resembling a British bobby, is played by a woman in drag. The part is typically mimed in the style of Charlie Chaplin or the Keystone Cops, but she does not carry an actual truncheon. Officer Beaples usually communicates through her whistle, and has many young police officers to teach (as seen on the Wiggles Live video). In The Wiggles Movie, Officer Beaples had a speaking role.

Magdalena the Mermaid lives in the ocean near Wiggle Bay. She helped the Wiggles find their adrift rowing boat when they visited the bay. She is featured in the video/DVD appropriately named 'Wiggle Bay'. She also appears in the DVD 'Racing to the Rainbow' (2006).

Professor Singalottasonga is a professor of sorts, singing opera style song. He wears a white suit with a red cape flowing behind him, the suit sporting large musical notes. He is played by Sam Moran. Professor Singalottasonga was introduced in one of the later series' of the Wiggles show.

The Wiggles live in an animated house that speaks and changes moods. The door demands a password (usually 'sillypants').

The Waggettes are puppies who are in the care of Wags the Dog. They dance but do not speak.