If you have young children and you don’t know what’s about to hit the Everett Events Center April 6 and 7, then you’ve been hiding under a rock.
This generation’s fab four, The Wiggles, are making their way from Australia to Snohomish County as part of their 2004 U.S. West Coast tour. Their aim is to delight thousands of children with songs, dancing and fun-loving friends like Henry the Octopus and Wags the Dog.
For more than a decade Jeff Fatt, Murray Cook, Anthony Field and Greg Page have been The Wiggles, the most successful children’s entertainment group in the history of Australia.
“When we started we had no idea,” they would be so popular, said Page, the yellow-shirted Wiggle. Field’s color is blue, Fatt’s is purple and Cook wears red.
Cook, Field and Page all met at a Sydney university where all three were studying early childhood education. Fatt, who had been a member of the band The Cockroaches with Field, joined the threesome a couple of years later and The Wiggles were born.
The group made an album of children’s songs as part of a school project and sent it to the Australian Broadcasting Company.
“All we wanted to do was an album of good quality childhood songs,” Page said. “We had no plans beyond that.”
They couldn’t foresee that they’d sell more than 3 million videos, 1 million CDs and cassettes and be touring the world giving an average of 500 concerts a year. Wigglemania quickly ensued and has lasted throughout the years. Their show can be seen daily on the Disney Channel.
“It is so much fun,” Page said. “I can honestly say that I love my job and love what I do.”
Last year they played 12 sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York. The challenge for Page is making each live performance different for the concertgoers, yet using the same basic format.
Audiences throughout the world have responded to The Wiggles in a way that still amazes Page, he said.
“The audiences in the U.S. are really enthusiastic,” Page said. “We walk on stage to huge thunderous applause. We feel so welcome. We feel that we are part of the country.”
The early childhood education background of the four men allows them to successfully combine children’s entertainment with positive messages such as brushing teeth and what happens when kids go to the doctor.
If you’re having trouble getting your children to eat their veggies just let them watch Anthony Wiggle munch his broccoli and talk about how much he loves it. Then follow up with Wiggles’ songs: “Fruit Salad,” “Crunchy Munchy Honeycakes” and “Hot Potato.”
The Wiggles target age is 3- to 6-year-olds.
When the forusome writes songs or does a show they call on their early childhood studies. They keep it simple and bright, and throw in a sprinkling of colorful characters like the big green rose-munching dinosaur, Dorothy.
This popular Wiggles character came from a song that Cook wrote when he was teaching. He couldn’t find any good songs about dinosaurs so he wrote one.
“It was a way of having a fantasy characters in the show,” Page said, “characters that are not in the everyday world.”
Children everywhere are growing through The Wiggles. Many older children, once Wiggles fans, have younger siblings who are discovering the group for the first time.
Lisa Holland, a first-grade teacher at Mountain Way Elementary in Granite Falls, agrees that the audience for The Wiggles and other children’s characters such as Barney is limited to children under the age of about 6.
“For 18-month- to 4-year-olds it’s pretty powerful,” Holland said, because the movements are simple so kids can follow them.
Holland’s own 21-month-old daughter loves The Wiggles. Fatt is her favorite with his purple shirt and propensity for sleep. Kathryn understands he is sleeping, and the easy banter of children shouting “Wake up Jeff” is not lost on her.
“She’s learned her body parts from The Wiggles,” Holland said.
Songs like “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,” are favorites with children who are learning where their ears and eyes are.
Holland believes that music is a powerful learning tool. Toddlers get the message about cleaning their teeth, going to the doctor and eating healthy food from simple, clear songs with repetitive tunes and lyrics.
Holland feels that preschool children come away with a positive self image: “I’m good at this, I can do this.”
Older kids may feel the message is too babyish, she said. “It’s not cool anymore.” They’ve moved onto Power Puff Girls and Dora the Explorer who speaks English and Spanish.
A quick poll of Holland’s first-graders showed that most of them have outgrown The Wiggles and have moved onto more complicated characters.
“I think by this age they are ready to follow a plot,” Holland said. “They might like The Wiggles movie more.”
Wiggle Page said he would have been a teacher if he hadn’t have become the yellow Wiggle.
“Funny how life changes,” he said.
His own children, 7 and 14, have grown up with The Wiggles, of course.
“The 7-year-old is just getting out of it. The 14-year-old is over it,” and sometimes gets teased about being the kid of a Wiggle, Page said.
No matter where the colorful foursome travel, children in Australia, Asia and Europe are all excited to see The Wiggles.
“Language barriers don’t exist,” Page said. “As soon as we start up, they dance and join in.”
Reporter Christina Harper: 425-339-3491 or harper@heraldnet.com.
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