The Wiggles will play The Arena at Gwinnett Center next week and this year marks the 15th anniversary of the band, which has earned them the title of the highest grossing entertainers from Australia for two years running. Anthony Field, a founding member of the band, took some time out of his current tour of the United States to speak with The Citizen.

The origins of the band start in the 1980s when Field, along with his brothers, Paul and John, and future Wiggle, Jeff Fatt, toured Australia as a surf rock band known as The Cockroaches.

“We had a few top 10 hits over there and some of The Wiggles songs are old Coackroaches songs with different lyrics, obviously,” said Field.

The group broke up and Field, who had also served in the Australian Army, didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. His sister convinced him to enroll in a course in early childhood studies at Macquarie University in Sydney and he became a preschool teacher. He met the other members of the band while at the university and soon they had formed a theater group that performed musical shows at birthday parties, kindergartens and pre-schools. The shows acted as a sort of fund raiser and the group split the money raised by their shows with the schools.

Field stated that it was a very gradual climb to success, but the moment he knew they had something came very early on.

“We had given a lady a tape of the song ‘D-O-R-O-T-H-Y,’ and she came back the next day and said that her child had listened to the song 43 times in a row. She had counted and knew exactly how many times she had heard it. I was sorry that she sounded a little annoyed but I knew what we were doing was connecting.”

The band continued to record and tour and they kept the goals of the music, which were similar to their goals when teaching, in focus. They wanted to empower children and allow them to learn through play. They also hoped to expose children to various cultures, through music and dance, and get children moving. The Wiggles have recorded songs in numerous languages, including Spanish, Hebrew, Italian, Greek and Dutch, and nearly every song they perform either has movements and dances written in to it or have had movements attached to them after the fact.

One classic example of a Wiggles song relying heavily on movement is “Rock-A-Bye Your Bear,” which also happens to be Field’s favorite.

“It’s amazing because my daughter started doing the movements in the song at just a year old,” Field said. “I’d have to say it is our most successful early childhood song.”

Though their live shows and CDs were increasingly popular, the band’s move to make videos or television programs wasn’t as successful, at first.

“We made a few videos, completely funded out of our pockets, and the production values were low,” Field said. “It was hard for people to get past them at first. We eventually re-recorded ‘Wiggle Time,’ when we got to the States.”

When The Wiggles finally got on TV and video, both in Australia and the U.S., things really took off. The Wiggles are now on every day, Monday-Friday, on The Dinsey Channel.

The Wiggles have 23 DVDs out and even more albums. Field estimates that they tour seven months out of the year and added that they have performed in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, England, Ireland, China, Hong Kong, and Puerto Rico.

“The kids go crazy everywhere,” said Field, adding that they especially love the costumed characters such as Dorothy the Dinosaur and Wags the Dog, and they all love waking up Jeff. (Fatt’s Wiggles character is known to fall asleep very easily.) Field also recalled performing at an orphanage in China. The group kept their banter to a minimum, as the children wouldn’t understand it, but they danced to the music and loved the costumed characters that came in.

In addition to the current tour, The Wiggles are working on a new television show, “Wiggle and Learn,” in their own television studio, which is one of the benefits of making as much money as they do, and they have opened a Wiggly Play Center in Dallas, Texas. The indoor playground is Wiggle-themed and offers a place for children to have birthday parties and play on days that are either too hot or too cold to play outdoors.

Field stated that the Wiggly Play Center has been very successful so far and there may be more opening in the U.S. soon.

Though their fans outgrow the band and their music eventually, new fans are being born every day and discovering the joy of The Wiggles’ music and videos. Field and the rest of his band mates realize how incredibly fortunate they are to be doing something they love to do. They started as early childhood educators and they remain such to this very day, though their classroom is now world-wide.

The Wiggles will appear at The Arena at Gwinnett Center on Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 3 and 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available at all TicketMaster vendor locations and online at www.TicketMaster.com.

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