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They went from a student project to global fame, outselling Kylie Minogue, but the members of The Wiggles, an Australian band for youngsters, say they’re amazed by their success as they prepare to celebrate two decades in the business.

“All we wanted was to [make] really great theater for children, great music for kids,” says Blue Wiggle Anthony Field. “But it wasn’t a career, we didn’t want to make money from it, we had no vision to travel.”

The colorful quartet, dressed in their trademark blue, red, yellow and purple high-necked shirts, are so beloved by children they can fill Madison Square Garden and reap tens of millions of US dollars in annual sales.

Their success made them Australia’s most profitable entertainers for four years in a row, outstripping Minogue, Keith Urban and rockers AC/DC, and made household names of characters Dorothy the Dinosaur and Wags the Dog.

“It’s all been a great surprise for us, how it’s gone and where it’s gone — all over the world now. It’s amazing for us,” the 47-year-old Field told Agence France-Presse.

The simple formula of catchy children’s tunes with sing-along lyrics and entertaining dances was born in 1991, when Field, Murray Cook and Greg Page were studying to become preschool teachers.

Among just a handful of men in their Macquarie University course of about 500 women, the trio decided to record an album for a class project.

Field was in an established rock band called The Cockroaches, and asked bandmate Jeff Fatt if he’d mind helping with the home-recorded album, which cost 4,000 Australian dollars ($3,700) to make but sold 100,000 copies.

“How long will it take?” asked Fatt, who was renovating his house at the time. Twenty years later, Fatt is still turning out as the sleepy Purple Wiggle, who has excitable young audiences screaming, “Wake up, Jeff!” and laughing at his headstands.

The keen surfer and cyclist, now graying at the temples and just past his 57th birthday, says “staying fit and healthy” is the secret to keeping up with the boisterous young audiences.

“Just doing the shows is enough, because they’re very physical and very demanding. You do have to watch what you eat,” he says.

Field knew they had stumbled onto something special when he lent that first recording to parents at a preschool and one mother returned it the next day because her son was playing it non-stop.

“We have always tried to speak to children in a language they … can relate to, we sing about things that are in their world, not the world of adults,” Field says.

Field, a one-time soldier and army medic, also has a strong following among mothers and was named Australia’s 1999 Bachelor of the Year by Cleo Magazine.

He named the band after a Cockroaches song, “Mr. Wiggle’s Back in Town,” and dedicated their self-titled first album to his niece whose sudden cot-death in 1988 prompted his preschool studies.

The Wiggles are now a global cultural force with CD, DVD, ticket and merchandise sales to match, and will be the subject of an exhibition at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum to celebrate their 20th year in 2011.

The success is hard-earned. The Wiggles spend between seven and eight months a year on the road. Cook, 50, says the time away from their partners and children is not easy, but the rewards are worth it.

“We hear a lot from families with children that have autism that we really make a connection with them,” he says. “It’s really rewarding and wonderful.”

Sam Moran, 32, replaced a chronically ill Page as the Yellow Wiggle in 2006, and he brought a new sound to the troupe, with classical training and a background in musical theater.

He says simply taking off their signature long-sleeved shirts is the band’s best disguise. “I wore a yellow T-shirt accidentally once, not thinking. I never wore it again,” he says, remembering attracting intense attention. 


Agence France-Presse