By Ali Ikram
Three of the original Wiggles will take their last drive in the big red car this year.
After selling 7 million CDs and 23 million DVDs, Greg Page, Jeff Fatt and Murray Cook are quitting to spend more time with their own families.
Rumours had persisted all day the Wiggles would call it quits on Sunday, and the group chose to deal with the hot potato in a taped message.
"We're the Wiggles; I’m Greg, I’m Jeff, I’m Murray, and I’m Anthony, and we've got some big news for you. Jeff, Greg and I have decided to hand over our purple, red, and yellow jerseys to a new generation of Wiggles."
It was 21 years ago when four early childhood teachers who played rock music on the weekends formed a band and The Wiggles was born.
"We were doing birthday parties at the weekends and rock and roll at night time,” says remaining original blue Wiggle Anthony Field.
Now, 6000 shows later it is a $50 million a year business.
But it has not all been so easy.
In 2006 Greg Page had to retire through illness, but then last year announced he wanted his yellow skivvy back.
Behind the scenes, moving on replacement wiggle Sam Moran was reportedly messy.
"There will be another driver of the big red car - it'll be Greg he was the yellow Wiggle before I was the yellow Wiggle," Moran said at the time.
The three new recruits are the first female member Emma Watkins (yellow) as well as Lachlan Gillespie (purple) and Simon Pryce (red).
"We've had so much fun over the past 21 years in our big red car," Fatt says.
Blue Wiggle Field will stay on the road while the retiring trio will still work on material for the group.
3 News
source: newshub archive
