The Wiggles are a famous children's entertainment group from Australia that formed in the year 1991 when founder, Anthony Field, "had the idea to make a children's album". He met fellow founding members Murray Cook and Greg Page at Macquarie University, where all three were studying early childhood education. He later recruited Jeff Fatt. who he was previously band mates with in the pop group The Cockroaches, and Phillip Wilcher, a music instructor at Macquarie. Wilcher left the group soon after the release of their first album.
Their popularity in Australia grew throughout the 1990s, with concert attendance constantly growing. Several best-selling and award-winning albums and videos allowed them to finance their first (and so far only) theatrical feature film and their first TV series. By the mid-2000s, The Wiggles had reached massive international success, as they toured many other countries, including the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
By 2006, Greg was forced to leave the group due to an illness called Orthostatic Intolerance and was replaced by his long-time understudy Sam Moran by the end of that year. Although Greg returned in 2012, he along with Murray and Jeff soon retired, being replaced by Emma Watkins, Simon Pryce and Lachlan Gillespie, respectively, in 2013. Emma left after 2021 and was replaced by Tsehay Hawkins. As of 2022, Anthony remains the only original member still in the group.
History[]
Before The Wiggles[]
Originally, Field and Fatt were in the pop 80's band called The Cockroaches. One day, Anthony Field dropped off his sister to Macquarie University and decided it looked good, so he could sign up as well. He talked to Greg Page, who was currently a roadie for The Cockroaches and convinced him to come and have a look too. This is where they met Murray Cook and Phillip Wilcher. They studied Early Childhood Teaching.
Starting The Wiggles[]
One day, Anthony had the idea to record an album of children's music, so the five guys, recorded and released the album in 1991.
Phillip Wilcher was employed by Macquarie University as an assistant to the Early Childhood Music program in which Field had enrolled as a student. Wilcher had previously been employed as Assistant Editor for the Classical/Educational Division of the Sydney based music publishing house of J Albert and Sons Pty Ltd as well as having worked for the ABC. Field first approached Wilcher requesting he write for the debut album. Wilcher also contributed the most financially to the project. The album as to afford the Wiggles a contract with the ABC for to further recordings but Wilcher soon found himself dumped by Field after the debut album appeared.
Wilcher states he had a verbal agreement to write for subsequent albums and whilst a document was drawn up for Phillip Wilcher agreeing that he would just stay behind the scenes as a writer and not be classified as a performer it was never officially acted upon. Wilcher did however appear in the film clip for Dorothy the Dinsosaur at the request of Anthony Field some months after initially leaving the group as a performer. According to Greg Page's autobiography, it would seem none of the other members of the group knew he had been asked back to be in the clip. In May 1992 went to the US to perform at celebrations honouring the legendary showman/pianist Liberace, whose family and friends Wilcher knew well and when he came back to Australia he could not get in any contact with Anthony Field or any other of The Wiggles. Eventually, he was told that the album was recorded without him and he was no longer needed. Wilcher was in the States no longer than three weeks. Greg Page states in his book "Now and Then" that they had a three week deadline by which to record the second album "Here Comes A Song" , a deadline Wilcher was apparently unaware of and one which coincides with the exact dates he was performing in the States.Although he had already written nearly the whole album by himself, he later released a children's album of sheet music independently involving those songs which has received favourable critical acclaim from several early childhood music experts.
Phillip Wilcher's involvement and departure[]
In 1991, Wilcher worked with the early childhood music program at Macquarie University. Anton Field, a childhood development student, approached him about a music group Field was contemplating. Wilcher joined Greg Page, Jeff Fatt, Murray Cook and Field from its earliest days through the production of the CD The Wiggles. Wilcher claims to have "contributed the most musically to the debut album."
"Get Ready To Wiggle" and "Dorothy the Dinosaur" were the only music videos that featured him and were only seen on ABC For Kids Video Hits and ABC For Kids Video Hits 2.
In 1992, Wilcher travelled to the United States. When he returned he was informed that the group did not need him and that a second album had been taped while he was overseas. Wilcher says he has no idea as to why he was kicked out of the group. The Wiggles, however, dispute this account. Dianna O'Neill, the group's spokeswoman, states that Wilcher wrote a letter of resignation. "There is no story. There was no fight, no fallout. Wilcher was just not so much into children's music, he was more into classical music."
Over the years, Wilcher's involvement with the group has been essentially deleted. The debut CD has been re-recorded, renamed Wiggle Time and re-released with all of Wilcher's contributions cancelled. Wilcher indicates that he was too "reclusive" to be a Wiggle.
Two articles have appeared in recent years about Wilcher's involvement with the Wiggles : "A Life Less Wiggly" by Steve Dow and "Becoming A Top Pre School Band was No Child's Play For Wiggles" by journalist Nick March writing for Abu Dhabi's The National.