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Questions as 3 Wiggles hang up skivvies

The retirement of three founding members of The Wiggles came as a shock to families yesterday, but raises questions about the inside politics .

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The retirement of three founding members of The Wiggles came as a shock to families yesterday, but raises questions about the inside politics of the multi-million dollar enterprise.

Only Anthony Field (pictured, right) remains with a skivvy after Jeff Fatt, Murray Cook and Greg Page announced their retirement. They will be replaced by back-up dancers Lachlan Gillespie, Simon Pryce and the first permanent female Wiggle, Emma Watkins.

Page only returned in January after the group famously dumped Sam Moran, triggering a huge backlash. In the TV interviews that followed, Field was said to be unprepared for the questions over his dismissal.

There is speculation today that public outrage over the way Moran had been treated by the group had “sucked all the life out of it.”

The Herald Sun also reports a tour was cut back.

The cast was slashed, the special effects dropped and sets were stripped back to basics as The Wiggles played a host of suburban and regional venues, as well as major cities, in an attempt to cut costs after recording a $2.5 million loss in the past financial year.

I’m guessing we will hear a lot more about this one…

16 Responses

  1. I watch a lot of these shows with my granddaughters and it’s very obvious the Wiggles need a generational change. Their energy levels are not so good nowadays and those tight tops are not very flattering to a bit of a belly! I guess they will sit back and enjoy the royalties.

  2. Sometimes these acts can endure and evolve. It is good these blokes are going, they look a bit too old for the same gig they were doing 20 years ago. They have had a great run and good ‘on ’em for stepping aside to allow younger folk the opportunity.

    It is a pity more old gits in tv land can’t do the same

  3. I knew this would happen. I figured they were going to retire anyway, so wanted to finish (well, to the end of the year, anyway) with the original lineup. Makes complete sense to me. Hopefully they don’t replace Captain Feathersword…from what I’ve seen of their shows, he’s essentially the glue that hold them together.

  4. Sill got the Wiggles movie but chucking it out as a mass protest and will not be taking my children to future wiggles concert. Boycott the Wiggles!!!!

  5. @Cat in the Hat

    The vitriol is simple to explain:

    Sam was treated very shabbily by the group. It was obvious then and it’s obvious now.

    There’s a very simple step the band could’ve taken this week to make all that bad press disappear: Re-hire Sam as the yellow Wiggle. Tell everyone “this was the plan all along”.

    This week could’ve been the perfect opportunity for everything to be fixed. Instead, it’s simply reminded us all of something distasteful that happened not too long ago.

  6. I am fascinated on the focus in the media today that one of the new Wiggles is female. It isn’t helped when they are overlooked by the Wiggles themselves in their press release (they indicate Kylie Minogue was the first), but there have been several female Wiggles already. The earliest record I can find is this SMH article (smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/21/1040174435443.html) talking about the first ever female Wiggle in the Taiwanese group. And there were at least two at one time in the Latin American Wiggles group. Some articles hint at this being the first ‘Australian’ female Wiggle, but a lot have missed that point.

  7. @bettestreep2008, Sam Moran probably won’t be speaking to his lawyers because the Wiggles (as far as I understand) haven’t broken any laws – his contract had run its course and wasn’t renewed. Whether they handled it with the best PR is another matter altogether. Besides, he began life as a back-up singer and dancer with the Wiggles so there’s no reason whatsoever the three new performers won’t be able to fit in.

    Er, and I guess you’d explain why the yellow Wiggle has breasts in the same way you’d demonstrate that women have them and men don’t.

  8. Bands re-form and change personnel all the time. Hi-5 has had numerous incarnations. Yet we reserve all this vitriol for the Wiggles? Is it because they are financially successful? Because they are children’s entertainers?

    After 20+ years entertaining kids and touring the world over do you not think they deserve to retire with some amount of gratitude instead of snide remarks and the need to call for a boycott?

    Best of luck to them all and thanks for the good quality entertainment the Wiggles have provided my children over the years.

  10. If I was Sam Moran I’d be speaking to my lawyers right now.

    They dumped him so Greg could come back for about a year and then replace him with backup dancers???

    And how are they going to explain to all the children why the yellow wiggle has breasts???

    Really poor form Wiggles. I am predicting they won’t last much longer.

    Their legacy will be how ruthless and insensitive they were with Sam.

    My kids no longer listen to them.

  13. I was curious about this news when I heard it. Assuming Greg is leaving again without sharing in the royalties so what was the point of his return? And how does Sam feel about this now…

  15. I think the Wiggles have jumped the shark, although that may be coloured by the fact my kids are now 5 and 7 and the youngest is almost grown out of them now.

    I think a large part of their charm was the fact that they were the songwriters and musicians as well as the performers (Hooley Dooleys are the same and my two also like them). This carried through to a degree with Sam who had been performing with them for some years before being “promoted” to a skivvy.

    With these new performers, I get the impression that they’ll become just like Hi5 and all the other manufactured groups that just perform the songs written by a team of people behind the scenes.

    My understanding is that Jeff has wanted to leave for quite a while now (he’ll be 60 next year so fair enough) and even at their concert we attended last year, they just didn’t have the same spark they had had in earlier years, which is particularly evident in the very early videos (so-so production values but they obviously were loving it and very enthusiastic).

  16. They’re not retiring til end of the year. So this is an attempt to boost flagging ticket sales I think – yr last chance to see the original lineup. If I were Moran I would launch a new kids solo act brand – golden chance to steal some market share while the kids still remember who he is, because it’ll take a while for them to get to know the new Wiggles (prob why Field is staying, so it’s not a total slew of new faces).

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