Ready, steady, wiggle
Australian children’s music supergroup excited to visit the ‘squid jiggin’ ground’
You know how during live shows, musicians will often say how excited they are to be in the city they’re performing?
If you and your children happen to hear it from the members of The Wiggles on Sunday, take them at their word.
The five members of the Australian children’s music supergroup have wanted to visit Newfoundland for a while, and are brushing up on their version of a popular local tune, just for you.
“I can’t wait to get up to the squid jigging ground,” blue Wiggle Anthony Field told The Telegram Thursday in a phone interview from Fredericton, N.B.
Field and the other Wiggles — Emma Watkins (yellow), Lachlan Gillespie (purple) and Simon Pryce (red) — aren’t actually going jigging, since their schedule doesn’t allow it (they’ll arrive in the wee hours of Sunday morning and leave early the next day), but they’re bringing the idea to the stage, including their version of Art Scammell’s 1928 song “Squid Jiggin’ Ground” in their set list.
It was Field who first brought the tune to a former incarnation of the band a few years ago, having heard the version recorded by Canadian country legend Hank Snow. The group recorded it for their “Let’s Eat” album, released in 2010, featuring Irish vocalist Tom McGlynn.
“I listen to it every day,” Field said. “It’s a Wiggle order to do it. We have to pay homage to that incredible song.”
Apart from the local tune, The Wiggles will cover their entire 23 year history, doing longtime favourites like “Rock-a-Bye Your Bear,” “Toot Toot Chugga Chugga Big Red Car” and “Do the Monkey.” Newer tunes that have come about since Watkins, Gillespie and Pryce replaced group founders Greg Page, Jeff Fatt and Murray Cook, who retired in 2013 — like “Do the Propeller” and “Ready, Steady, Wiggle” — will also be included.
Field says the former Wiggles are still often around. Fatt and Cook are still on the board of directors of the company, while Page often brings his children to shows.
“His little boy loves the Wiggles, but he prefers the new ones,” Field says, laughing.
Watkins is the first female member of the group, and children needed no warming up to her. The group saw a shift in audience members to include more little girls, many of them attending in mini Emma Wiggle costumes, down to her trademark hair bow.
“It’s so wonderful,” Watkins said. “They’ll bring craft bows they’ve made, with lots of glitter and stickers on them. Some of them have little messages on them, and lots of times they’ve spent a week or more making them with their parents. We’ll collect them and we try to read out all the names.”
Performing and recording songs from different cultures and sometimes in different languages is part of what The Wiggles do, Watkins said, and they also like to reach out to children of varying abilities. “Jack’s Wheelchair Song” was written for their friend Jack, a longtime fan, about all the things he can do in his wheelchair, and “I’ve Got My Glasses On” was inspired by Field’s daughter.
“She got her glasses and she didn’t know there were actually leaves on the trees,” Watkins said. “She thought they were just a green blur.
“Most of our songs are very inclusive; children can experience them all in their own way.”
The best part about being a Wiggle, for Watkins, is getting to perform on stage as herself instead of in a role. The personalities, the music and the interaction with children are always real, she said, and always genuine.
Though they’ve always enjoyed making their TV show, it’s the live performances they love the best.
“Just watching the kids and seeing how they enjoy it,” Field said. “Like Brian Wilson said, there’s good vibrations. It’s never a bad day.”
The Wiggles will perform in Mile One’s half venue, at 12:30 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are available at the Mile One box office and online at www.mileonecentre.com.