| rdfs:comment
| - It all started with a young Anthony Field, who was studying to be a pre-school teacher at Sydney’s Macquarie University. It was there that Anthony learnt all about child development, child psychology, how children think, and the importance of play in the children’s lives. He loved the course and enjoyed campus life. He recalls, “At university, there were maybe four or five guys and over four hundred women, which was a bit overwhelming. I think the blokes got together as a bit of a bonding thing.” Most of the four or five blokes at university were musicians and included Murray Cook (bass player for Finger Guns) and Greg Page (singer for Dead Giveaway and former Cockroaches roadie), so they naturally jammed together. Anthony would often ask his brother John (who played guitar with The Cockro
|
| abstract
| - It all started with a young Anthony Field, who was studying to be a pre-school teacher at Sydney’s Macquarie University. It was there that Anthony learnt all about child development, child psychology, how children think, and the importance of play in the children’s lives. He loved the course and enjoyed campus life. He recalls, “At university, there were maybe four or five guys and over four hundred women, which was a bit overwhelming. I think the blokes got together as a bit of a bonding thing.” Most of the four or five blokes at university were musicians and included Murray Cook (bass player for Finger Guns) and Greg Page (singer for Dead Giveaway and former Cockroaches roadie), so they naturally jammed together. Anthony would often ask his brother John (who played guitar with The Cockroaches with Anthony) to join them for these lunchtime sessions. These sessions were so enjoyable that the guys decided to take them to the streets of Sydney and busk for fun and the occasional coins thrown into Greg’s guitar case. Anthony enlisted another member of The Cockroaches, Jeff Fatt, to play the accordion for the busking group. And so, armed with their knowledge of early childhood education and a developing cachet of songs, this group, without a name, would take their first step towards success. In fact, during one of these busking sessions, John Field led the group with a call-and-response song that was fun to sing and also caused the audience to toss in large numbers of coins. The song became one of The Wiggles’ biggest hits, Hot Potato. Anthony was nearing the end of his university studies in Early Childhood Education and would soon be looking for a job. He thought that if he recorded an album of children’s music he might increase his chances of a job as a pre-school teacher. So he pulled together his busking group as well as another musician from university, Phillip Wilcher, and recorded an album. Anthony recalls, “We used to wear different coloured shirts, not skivvies, but we wore shirts with very busy patterns. We thought that was kind of bright. Murray, Greg, Jeff and I were all rock ’n’ rollers. We could put a bit of music that had a rock ’n’ roll beat and also incorporate what we’d learnt about children and what they respond to. And that was the first Wiggles album.” The group now needed a name and so they looked to a dance song John Field had written called Get Ready to Wiggle. Wiggle seemed a good description for the way young children moved and The Wiggles seemed a fun name. The aim was simply to record the album and the highest hope was to get the album released (and for Anthony to get a job teaching).
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)