| Wiggling into Wollongong
By LOUISE TURK December 10, 2002 Getting a Wiggle on: The Wiggles on their 2002 Wiggly Safari Tour in the WIN Entertainment Centre They drive around in a big toy car and hang out with toddlers. But if you think their work is all just kids' games, consider that they're among Australia's most popular - and most highly paid - entertainers. They're the Wiggles, and they're coming to Wollongong on Saturday. YOU know you've reached the stratosphere of stardom when scalpers in the US start selling your $A27 concert tickets for more than $A530 a pop. Australia's most successful children's entertainers - the Wiggles - are hot property in the US after a sell-out tour of the east coast last month which whipped up levels of hysteria usually reserved for rock stars. There were reports of parents sleeping outside the box offices overnight to be first in line for tickets. One mother confessed to driving 120km in torrential rain so her two-year-old could attend a concert. Jerry Seinfeld went backstage to meet the Wiggles and John Travolta hugged them, saying he and his two kids were great fans. During all of this madness, the Wiggles rubbed shoulders with American media heavyweight Katie Couric on her TV show NBC's Today, and paraded down Fifth Avenue in an event watched by millions. To put it simply, they've hit the big time in a big way. The success of the tour, which began on November 8 and featured 43 shows in 20 days, had some journalists making comparisons between the Wiggles and that other famous Fab Four - The Beatles. So, Americans have finally discovered what we've known since the early 1990s - that there's something very special about our four colour-coded men. The Wiggles are performing two concerts at WIN Entertainment Centre on Saturday. But unlike those who forked out more than $US300 ($A537) to scalpers for concerts in Manhatten, fans here can secure a $20 seat to the Wollongong concerts with a call to Ticketek. 2002 has been a big year for the top-earning foursome of Murray Cook (red skivvy), Jeff Fatt (purple), Anthony Field (blue) and Greg Page (yellow). How are the Wiggles coping with the current outbreak of Wigglemania - has it all gone to their heads? A large part of their appeal is that they are down-to-earth. Will success change these self-confessed dags? Disarmingly modest Greg, who at 30 is the baby of the group, doesn't think so. "We do what we do and we don't worry too much about it," the lead vocalist said. "We still lead fairly normal lives. "It's certainly very satisfying to be able to travel to the US and play to sell-out houses ... it's nice to know that people are watching what we do, and they are watching our shows and buying our videos, but we are not letting it affect us too much." The Wiggles were dismayed to learn the tickets for the New York shows had been sold by scalpers at such ridiculous prices. "That was unfortunate for the fans," Greg said. "Ticket-broking and scalping is legal in the States and there was nothing we could do about it." It's this niceness that is so comforting and endearing about the Wiggles. You could never picture a Wiggle throwing a hissy fit or refusing to sign an autograph. The fact they still tour regional areas such as Wollongong is proof of their genuine desire to maintain contact with all their fans. "We have been fairly successful over the past 10 years, and I'm sure it (success) changes us a little bit but not in the sense we don't talk to people anymore or think we are too good," Greg said. "We work hard to achieve what we do because we love what we do, and sometimes our schedule takes its toll. "But we're never going to get a big head about success because as soon as we do we bring each other down to earth. "There is no point in getting wrapped up in it all. We try not to believe our own press and just focus on what we do." In their quest to relate to their target audience of pre-schoolers, the group is fresh and adventurous and not self-conscious about being silly. Who can forget those early years when they sang into broomsticks on their pirate ship, and were flat out on their backs, legs in the air, singing to Wags the Dog: "Oh me, oh my, he barks all day and night"? "There is nothing wrong with being daggy," Greg jokes. "We've made a career out of it. Just the fact that four grown men wear skivvies and dance around is pretty daggy but there is nothing wrong with it." The Wiggles aren't the only children's entertainment group on the market. But they are, by a long margin, the most successful. As Bert Newton put it when he introduced the Wiggles on Good Morning Australia: "There are other groups doing reasonably similar things - and this is no disrespect to the other groups - but there's a special charm and special feel about the Wiggles." Greg reckons their backgrounds as early childhood teachers has been vital to their success. (Greg, Murray and Anthony became qualified teachers through Sydney's Macquarie University). "A lot of our beliefs and philosophies for what we do with the Wiggles have come from that tertiary education," Greg said. They also believe their success is due to the fact they started as friends looking for a bit of fun, rather than being four performers brought together as a package by an external person. Keyboard player Jeff joined the trio in 1991 and the Wiggles were born. (Jeff and Anthony were part of the 1980s Sydney rock band The Cockroaches.) "The four of us just sat down and started writing songs for children because that's what we wanted to do," Greg said. "We didn't really care what the results were. There wasn't a business or commercial plan." He won't admit it, but Greg's vocal abilities have also helped to propel the group's achievements. The Elvis fan started singing in a school rock band when he was 13, and was encouraged to pursue his interest by music teachers. He underwent formal voice training when he was in Year 12 to prepare for a singing performance that was part of the Higher School Certificate. "I still don't think I've got a good voice," he says modestly. "I love to sing and certainly a lot of people tell me they like to listen to it (my voice) which is very nice but there are a lot of people who can sing a whole lot better than I can." It's hard to believe now but the Wiggles were once famously told by a TV producer they didn't "communicate well with children". The comment was made in the mid 1990s when the group tried unsuccessfully to get a TV project off the ground at the ABC. Guess who had the last laugh? "We were told we were not very good at communicating with children," Greg said. "We just thought: 'sorry we don't agree with you because we have sold a lot of videos'. "Quite often, when people tell you something like that, it just spurs you on to try harder and do bigger and better things. "And now six years later we have our own TV program on the ABC. We were able to work around that. We held true to our beliefs and principles. We are doing TV we are really happy with and we know it's working because it's rating its head off here in Australia." A second series of the show entitled - Lights, Camera, Action - Wiggles! - is on the cards and is scheduled for the second half of next year. After 11 years of dancing and singing - with their friends Captain Feathersword, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus and Wags the Dog - the Wiggles are still having fun. They spend about eight months of every year touring - this year they have staged four major tours of the US. Three months are devoted to recording new songs, videos and the TV show, leaving only one month for non-Wiggles activities. "It's still enjoyable but the travelling is hard now because we move between Australia and the US a lot," Greg said. "Time away from our families is difficult. It's fortunate for us that the positives outweigh the negatives." Murray, 42, is married with two children; Greg is married with two children; Jeff, 49, is single with no children; and Anthony, 39, is single with no children. This year the group signed agreements to license Asian versions of The Wiggles, and they are considering approaching the European market in the same way. Last Friday WIN Entertainment marketing manager Milton O'Brien said there was only a handful of tickets left for sale for the 10am show, and only a few hundred remained for the 1pm show. Mr O'Brien is expecting a total of 6000 little and big feet to march through the doors on Saturday. With such large crowd numbers, the Wiggles come prepared. Mr O'Brien said the group brings its own mini-barriers to prevent children from gaining access to the stage. He said hosting the Wiggles at the WEC was always a delight. "The Wiggles always sell well," he said. "They are an Australian children's entertainment icon at the moment. Our staff also like having them here because they are fun and cordial to work with. I always look forward to a Wiggles concert because you know you're guaranteed to sell the tickets." |
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