A reunion of the original four Wiggles members has been announced by Anthony Field, the Blue Wiggle.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Field asked fans if there was interest in attending an over-18s pub gig by the original Wiggles – “played live and loud” – for charity. A subsequent tweet confirmed the reunion show will take place in January, although a spokeswoman has since said it is more likely to take place in February.
Great response! We get to help a mate,so dust off the old VHS tapes,The Original Wiggles will be doing a pub show for Over 18s,January 2016!
— Anthony Field (@Anthony_Wiggle) November 12, 2015
All show proceeds will be donated to a friend of the Wiggles, called David Savage. Savage survived a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan but is in a wheelchair as a result of his injuries. He has also been helped by Soldier On, of which Field and his brother Paul, are ambassadors of.
The Wiggles formed in Sydney in 1991. The original group consisted of Greg Page (Yellow Wiggle), Jeff Fatt (Purple Wiggle), Murray Cook (Red Wiggle), Field and a fifth member, Phillip Wilcher who left after the band’s first album.
Cook said the Wiggles members were in regular contact with one another, with he and Fatt still involved in the “business side” of the band. “We’re pretty excited about [the reunion], I think it’ll be fun,” he told Guardian Australia.
He said it will mark the first time the Wiggles have played in a pub, and the show will start much later than your standard Wiggles gig. “Jeff will probably fall asleep for real!” Cook said. They were looking forward to playing their classic hits such as Hot Potato and Rise For Alex.
The band were nominated 20 times for an Australian Recording Industry Association award for best children’s album, winning 12 times. Their latest album Rock & Roll Preschool is in the running for a 2015 Aria, to be announced on 26 November.
In the group’s current incarnation, Field is the only remaining member of the original line-up, alongside Lachlan Gillespie (Purple Wiggle), Simon Pryce (Red Wiggle) and Emma Watkins (Yellow Wiggle).
Field said of the band’s changes two years ago: “when we moved from the original Wiggles line-up to the new, even my wild, Wiggliest imagination couldn’t have predicted how the children and families of Australia would embrace the new line-up.”
“We’re now in our third year together and the new energy and expertise that we have has certainly been contagious.”
This current line-up of the Wiggles will embark on an 11-date Australian tour beginning in Hobart on Saturday 14 December and finishing on 22 December in Brisbane.
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