Anthony Field

Today is a Wiggles Day!

I'm excited.

I love The Wiggles.

I added Anthony Field to the list on the day I wrote about Greg Page. I decided I needed to dedicate another day to The Wiggles, because I had spent so much time talking about Greg's disease.

I actually wouldn't mind writing about Jeff and Murray as well...although maybe that would get redundant.

You know....I can't think of Anthony Field without thinking of my sister Dawn.

She was a fan of The Wiggles when her daughter Darcy was a toddler. For Darcy's second birthday, they had a Wiggles theme. I'm not sure if this love of the Wiggles originated with Darcy or my sister. I guess we'll never know.....

They had a bunch of Wiggles toys including these men dolls. I think my sister had a little crush on them....the dolls. She'd joke that I'd need to keep my hands off the blue one.  Anthony.  It was hard for me to do that sometimes. That doll was pretty damn sexy. No worries, though. We didn't do anything kinky. Well, at least I didn't. I can't speak for my sister.

Jack went through a period of loving The Wiggles too. His favorite was not one of the men but Dorothy the Dinosaur. He had a little stuffed animal of her, Henry the Octopus, and Wags the Dog. Jack rarely got attached to stuffed animals, but he DID get attached to Dorothy. Sadly we lost her at a hotel. We frantically rushed to the store to buy a new one. Then Jack being Jack....he lost interest soon after.

Jack and I used to play The Wiggles. He'd be Henry, and I'd be Dorothy. I think I was pretty good at doing Dorothy's voice. I can't say the same for Jack as Henry. He doesn't really ever change his voice when he plays. I notice that even now. It's hard for me to tell when he's switching characters.

You know, I could probably write a whole long post about The Wiggles without doing one bit of research. I can just ramble on and on about my family's Wiggle adventures.

But I SHOULD do research as well.

I'm actually curious about them.

So let's start. Lord Wiki, what do you have to say about Anthony Field?

He says....

Baby Anthony was born on 8 May 1963.

I'm not sure of his astrology sign. The birthday website will tell me.

I think one of my grandparents died on May 8. Grandma Bea, maybe? Or maybe it was Grandma Goldie? Maybe it was neither. Actually, I think Grandma Bea died in June. It was a few weeks before our wedding. So if it was anyone, it would had to have been Grandma Goldie.

Oh wait. It could have been my Grandpa who died around then. Jack was around eight months when Grandpa Ed died. That would have put his death around May. I think.....

Anyway, the birthday calculator says that Field is a Taurus. I don't know much about the Taurus, but I don't feel like exploring that subject right now.

Field is a 5 in numerology. I will look at that, because I love that new website I found.

They say this about the 5. You make friends easily, you are versatile and multi-talented, upbeat and inspirational and a good communicator and motivator. You have great verbal skills and you are very dynamic, persuasive, adaptable, versatile and curious, courageous, bright and quick-witted.

My sister is a 5. That fits her somewhat. She DOES make friends easily. She has good verbal skills. I enjoy conversations with her, and I like reading her emails. She's VERY entertaining.

As for the negative: It is difficult for you to commit to one relationship, and you have difficulties to finish projects. You lack discipline and order, you are impatient, restless, easily distracted and you can be very impulsive.

No, that doesn't sound like my sister. And it's NOT that I'm trying to be nice. I could write a whole blog post bitching about the girl. It's just it wouldn't include anything that resembles the above.

Does it fit the blue Wiggle? Maybe? Maybe not. I bet my sister would be thrilled to know she shares a numerology number with the guy.

Field was born in my favorite city—Sydney.

Before The Wiggles, he was in the band The Cockroaches. This was in the 1980's and 1990's. His brothers Paul and John were also members....and Jeff Fatt too.

Lord Wiki has some information about the brothers. I think I'll read about them.

Paul is the one whose child died of SIDS. She was eight months old. That's so incredibly sad. I was about to say something cliche like I can't imagine how horrible that would be. But the thing is I CAN imagine, and I do imagine. I feel before I was a parent I'd hear stuff like that and think yeah, it's sad. But I was so detached from it. Once you're a parent, I think you CAN somewhat feel the pain of these parents. You imagine it happening to your family, and your heart just sinks.

Paul Field's daughter died in 1989. The Cockroaches continued their work for a short while. They longed for that sense of normalcy, and they had bills to pay. But soon after, the Cockroaches were no more.

Anthony went to Macquarie University to study early childhood education. In 1991, he formed the Wiggle with classmates Murray and Greg...and Jeff from the Cockroaches. They dedicated their first album to Anthony's niece.

Paul was a lead singer for The Cockroaches. I guess maybe he lost his love of singing. He's involved with The Wiggles--more backstage. He's the general manager of operations. His children have appeared in some of the Wiggles programs and TV shows. He has their names tattooed on his left arm. His lost daughter's name is on his right arm. That's sweet but so sad.

John (the other brother) writes songs for The Wiggles.

He composed a musical called Evie and the Birdman. It starred Sam Moran who later became the new yellow wiggle.

John writes commercial jingles. Lord Wiki says he wrote one for Paddy's Market. I'd love to see that.

Back to Anthony. He's the youngest of the three Field boys. Although I guess there could be more siblings in the family. I'm just seeing three for now, though.

Oh well....I just needed to look down one paragraph. There were SEVEN children in the family.

There was music in the family's history. Their grandmother did accompaniment for silent films. Their mother pushed each kid to learn at least one musical instrument.

Field attended St. Joseph's College, Hunter Hill. It's a Roman Catholic school. It was at this school that the brothers started The Cockroaches. That was in 1979. Anthony would have been about sixteen at the time.

A few years after that, he took some time away from music and joined the Australian Army. That was from 1982-1985. I guess he returned to the Cockroaches until they disbanded in 1989. Lord Wiki kind of contradicted himself. Maybe? In the first paragraph he said the Cockroaches were around in the 1980's and 1990's. But later he says they disbanded in 1989.

There might be something I'm missing here.

Field worked as a preschool teacher for two years.

I bet he was an awesome teacher.

Originally he wore a green shirt instead of blue. They later switched the color, because Dorothy the Dinosaur was associated with green.

Field also played the part of Captain Feathersort. Eventually that job went to Paul Paddick.

Field can play many instruments including the didgeridoo.

He got married in 2003 to a dancer. They have three kids. The kids have been featured in Wiggles shows.

He's a dog breeder....fox terriers.

He likes the singer Julio Iglesias.

Field suffers from clinical depression. He says he deals with it by eating well, exercising, and having a good support system. I hope to read more about this later.

He's a devout Catholic. He has a Virgin Mary tattoo. And like his brother, he has the names of his children tattooed on his arm.

I'm done with Lord Wiki.

I suppose next I'll go to the official Wiggles website.

The website wanted me to choose my country. I wanted to pick Australia, but I knew I was supposed to pick America. So what did I do? I picked Canada instead. I feel that's a good compromise.

I'm not sure what the point of that is. They say each site will help us find our local concerts and all that. But through the Canada site, I can find American events.

The Wiggles are going to be in America in a few weeks....Washington, Oregon, and then California. They're going to be in Dallas in August! I wouldn't mind going, but we've already been to one of their concerts. My sister's family has been to two or three. I'm thinking the kids have probably outgrown it. Or maybe not.....

It looks like they're going to be in America for the rest of the summer...the Northern Hemisphere's summer.

Then they're going to New Zealand. That's for September and October.

In December, they're doing Australia.

It looks though like they're taking some days off for Christmas. Then they're moving on to the UK.

How about Canada?

Ah! They were already in Canada. That's past now.

Here's something funny. I forgot about this. The first Wiggles Play Center is in Sydney. Right? Of course. Guess where the second one is....

Dallas! We never went though. I wanted to but never got around to it.

I can't remember if my sister ever want.

The Wiggles official site has an information page. I'll read it and see if there's anything Lord Wiki missed.

The Wiggles have been around for eighteen years. Wow. Really? Has time gone by that fast?  I'm feeling so damn old.

The site is pretty much listing their awards and going on and on about how awesome they are. I totally agree that The Wiggles are awesome, but I'm not going to repeat much of what this site says. You guys can go read it for yourselves....if you're interested.

The Wiggles have counterparts in different countries. There are Taiwanese Wiggles and soon there will be Spanish ones. That's cool! The Wiggles can't be everywhere at once; and there are so many children out there who want to see them. I think duplicating themselves is a good way to deal with this.

This blog talks about Field's children. It seems he and his wife had their three kids in one burst. The third one was born in April 2007. So now he's be two-years-old. When he was born they had an eighteen-month-old and three year old. Wow. So now they have a five-year-old, a three-and-a-half-year old, and a two-year-old.

I'm so happy to have my one almost eight-year-0ld.

Both my sister and my cousin had kids close together. I think it was rough on them, but they survived. They had only two, though. I have a friend who had three close together but not that close. There's a two year space between all of them. Oh! I do have a friend who has three close together. I forgot that. She's my high school friend and now my Facebook friend. The last time I saw her she had one baby. That was in 2006. Now she's a mom of three. She sounds happy and mentally stable. I'm not sure how she does it. I'd probably be pulling out my hair.

Here's an article about Field's depression. It's on website called Insider...looks a bit like a tabloid.

Field has had depression issues since he was in his twenties.

He went public recently to draw attention to the problem.

He says he stays healthy and avoids alcohol. That helps him.

There's not any mention of psychiatric drugs. I wonder if he takes them.

In my research on dreaming I found talk about the role of Serotonin in dreams. Serotonin is also involved with depression and some eating disorders.

One thing that was suggested was to spend time in the sunshine. That helps increase your levels of Serotonin. That made sense to me, because I've heard of Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Maybe instead of pushing drugs on people, we should push more time outside. I know that won't solve everyone's problems. But it might give some of us a little boost. I really believe drugs should be a last resort.

Fields talks about how despite his success, lovely family, and exciting life....all of that sometimes fails to keep depression at bay. He says people ask him what he has to be depressed about? Field says Depression is a physical thing that sometimes I just can't reason my way out of.

I think that's true. I also feel we shouldn't look at people and assume they have perfectly happy lives. They might have easier lives than us, but we ALL have our sorrows. Sometimes you have to look beyond the surface. Someone might live in a huge house in a perfect neighborhood with a beautiful view outside their backyard. That doesn't mean their life doesn't contain hardship and sorrow. Someone might have a family that's affectionate, funny, and seemingly perfect. But if you take off the rose colored glasses and dig a little, you might find there is pain and sadness as well.

Damn. That Insider website wouldn't let me use my back button to get back to Google. I'm blaming Barry Crocker, of course.

Here's an unofficial Anthony Field fan site.

Well, you have to join the fan club to see the site. It's free, but I don't feel like joining right now. Maybe another day. 

No, probably not.

Here's an interview with Field.

He hosts a series called RSCPA Animal Rescue. Maybe I can see some of it on YouTube.

Well, this site has a clip from it. Is Field the narrator? I can't really tell.

This is what I find to be ridiculous about our world. The show says the owners of a mistreated horse may face charges of criminal neglect. Do I disagree with that happening? No! I definitely think the owners should be prosecuted. But what gets me is if an animal is going to be used for food, in a lot of places they're NOT protected under the law. HORRIBLE abuse happens to animals on factory farms. And this is often deemed as being okay.

Oh yeah. Back to Field.

He says doing the show can be sad for him, because he loves animals. Like most of us, he doesn't want to see them in pain.

I think what should be done is this: Whenever we buy a package of meat, milk, or eggs...there should be a picture of the suffering animal on the box. Maybe it would make us (including me!!!) think twice about buying the stuff. Then on humane products they can show an animal living a happy and healthy life.

 I totally think that's what should be done.

The Wiggles were in New Orleans two weeks before Katrina hit. In this interview, he says they're going back there. He says he looks forward to seeing how they're doing.

Field's kids don't come with him to America, but they do jump around from city to city in Australia to see him. That's kind of sad that they don' get to see their dad for months at a time. But it's hard to take kids on that long plane ride. Maybe when they're older....

Someone Field looks up to his Mick Jagger. He's impressed that the guy seems to be in such good health.

Field is into fitness--exercise and diet. He wrote a book called How I Got My Wiggle Back.

The Wiggles had a date with Andrew Denton. I'll read about that.

The Wiggles do some kind of finger move. I'm not sure if I remember it. Maybe? But anyway, they got the idea from watching bowling. Whenever these certain two guys got a strike, they'd do the finger thing. The Wiggles copied it.

The Jeff story is even funnier here. He says that Field was always asking him to be involved in some kind of project. It seems Fatt was a bit sick of that; and when Field initially asked him to help with The Wiggles, Fatt told Field to get lost at first.

The guys didn't want to take The Wiggles on tour. I think they were sick of touring from their Cockroach days.

In Australia, shirts are called skivvies. In America Skivvies are underwear. So that caused some confusion. I never really knew that. I mean now that I read that, it kind of rings a bell. But I pretty much call underwear underwear.

When they first came to America, they didn't have much of an audience. It's probably because people didn't want to bring their children to see men in underpants.

Seriously, though....they did performances in Blockbuster parking lots. In one, only four people showed up to watch. Yikes!

I guess they then signed with Disney, and soon their audiences were huge.

The guys say that the adults in the American audiences are much more loud and enthusiastic than the Australian adults.

There's funny stuff here...rumors that Jeff was dead. It's like some kind of conspiracy theory. Jeff died. The record company tried to cover that up. And the Wiggles put out subtle messages about the TRUTH.

I don't know if there really WERE rumors, or if Denton is just making this stuff up.

When asked what the secret to their success is, Field says this. I think we respect our audience. We've never made jokes about our audience, never made jokes about the kids who come to the show. When they're at the show, we never say, "Sit down," or anything. If they want to get up and go crazy, great. We generally like our audience and we like the parents. We like the whole thing.

I think that's lovely.

I googled Jeff's death and found this funny website. I think it's written by Lord Wiki's uncle.

Uncle Wiki says the Wiggles will feature prominently in the upcoming Apocalypse alongside a calvalcade of well-known stars, and will appear alonside Barney the Dinosaur and the fearsome pirate Captain Feathersword. They will travel in their mighty vermilion chariot, bringing fear and platinum albums to the world, with a mighty army of toddlers in their wake.

That's some scary stuff.

Uncle Wiki says Jeff symbolizes death and reincarnation...you know how he falls asleep, but then is awakened.

Wow. This is DEEP stuff here.

Uncle Wiki says Anthony represents famine and greed. He eats and eats but remains at the same weight.

Uncle Wiki says Dorothy plans to take over the world.

I'm not finding anything via Google regarding Jeff's death. Maybe Denton did make it up.

Now I'm going to go to YouTube and watch some videos.

Here's our guy playing fitness trainer. I'm impressed with all the things he can do with a bar. I wish I could do that. I can barely lift my feet off the ground if I hold onto a bar.

Here's a radio interview with Field. The interviewer uses an analogy I like. He describes fame as like riding on a surfboard. I can imagine it's like that. You're on top of the world. You're having a great time. But you also might feel as if you're not fully in control. Although I've never gone surfing, and I've never been famous. I'm just taking a guess here that the radio guy might have a good point.

Most if the interview seems to be about The Wiggles meeting famous Americans...Robert De Niro, Matthew Broderick, Jerry Seinfield, and Shaquille O'Neal.

He talks about his education degree. Field says it concentrated more on child development than curriculum. This was the big difference I found between NYC schools and Fort Worth ones. In NYC, there was a LOT of thought put into child development. It was more about growing children who are emotionally and socially healthy. The teachers were all very knowledgeable about child development and psychology. We even had a psychologist on board who would help us when we had issues with children.

In Fort Worth, the concentration was on curriculum...teaching the kids how to read. There didn't seem to be much thought put into child development.

I do think the child development approach can get a bit anal. Children need this. Children need that. There's a lot of shoulds and should'nts in the field.

Children should never watch TV.
Children shouldn't be praised.
Children shouldn't color in coloring books.
Children should never be bribed.

I think all those ideas are interesting. And I think they have SOME validity. But it can go way too far at times.

On the other hand, I'd kind of prefer that over the approach where the teachers seem completely ignorant of child development. Or maybe it's not the ignorance that bothers me. Sometimes the ignorant people are the ones who are great with kids. I WAS better with kids before I went to graduate school. And I'm better now that I've forgotten most of the crap I've learned.

I think I'm just bothered by Fort Worth's over emphasis on academics. I think it's fine to do a little bit of that with three's and four's. But for the most part, I think they should be sliding on slides, building with blocks, and making pancakes with play-doh.

They should be making fruit salad and playing hot potato.

They should be dancing, jumping, and WIGGLING.

Ah! Field talks about sharing and how adults have high expectations for children in regards to that. What he pretty much says, and I agree with it, is that yes, children have trouble sharing. But adults do too! Well, at least in our culture we do. I know the Aboriginals were much better at sharing.

I'm watching the second part of the interview now. Field talks about how children are egocentric. That is now something I've grown to disagree with. I don't think egocentricism has anything to with age. Jack is SO not egocentric. He's very interested in others. According to Field, children don't do this. They're focused on themselves. Out of all the friends I've ever had, Jack has shown the most interest in me. He's shows interest in my hobbies. He asks me what book I'm reading. He wants to know who I'm researching. He likes hearing about my childhood. He likes knowing which foods everyone in our family dislikes. He's VERY interested in others. He really cares.

I've known many adults who are incredibly egocentric. I know people who talk on and on about themselves. They never ask me questions about my life. If I try to talk about me, they ignore it.  They don't respond, they change the subject, or they zone out.

Field compares his life as a Wiggle to his life as a Cockroach. He says hotel managers treat the former much better. They're weary of rock stars...happy to see children's entertainers.

Now I'm going to watch the third part of the interview.

Steve Irwin must have died right around the interview. They talk about him...not so much his death. But it's mentioned. Field talks about how Irwin worked with them on the Wiggly Safari Video. Field says Irwin's off screen personality was the same as his onscreen one...the personality that some of us love and some of us strongly dislike. He did the show, because Bindi was a huge Wiggles fan at the time. He did it for her. I have to admit it. I had a little lump in my throat when I heard that.

Field says it was a hard decision to leave his preschool job. He liked it. He liked the kids and parents. And he was a bit apprehensive. When you go into an entertainment job....there can be some insecurity. Well, there's insecurity in ALL jobs but probably more so in the entertainment fields.

Well, I'm done with the interview. It was very good, by the way. I recommend it to anyone who is a Wiggle fan.

Here's Field on a game show. Deal of the Century. I wonder if it's American or Australian....

Ah. It's Australian. Anthony wins the game, and he does that Wiggle finger trademark that they ripped off from the bowling people.

I just finished listening to The Cockroaches sing "Some Kind of Girl". I couldn't tell which one was Anthony. I liked it, though. It reminds me of 1950's stuff. That's fine because I love music from the 1950's.

And here's them singing "She's the One". Those two song titles kind of fit together, don't they.

Here's some kind of humerous interview with The Wiggles. It's from an American (or Canadian?) show called Tench Interviews.

Oh wait! No. It's an Australian show. The animated guy sounds American to me. Maybe I'm being dense? Or maybe he's faking an accent.

All right. Now he's sounding more Australian. I don't know if this is an Australian actor trying to imitate an obnoxious American talk show host. Or if I'm just losing my mind when it comes to accents. Have I lost touch with reality?

Most of the jokes just make me want to groan. But I had a few laugh out loud moments. I like Tench's Wiggles song lyric ideas. There's brush your teeth or the boogeyman will get you. And then there's You're adopted so tuck your own self in. I shouldn't find the latter at all funny since my husband is adopted.

Now I'm onto part two.

Murray and Anthony are a bit awkward in this. They're playing the parts of the saintly preschool teachers. They have a very difficult time responding to Tench's distasteful jokes. I kind of like that in them. They say it's because they're wearing their Wiggles clothes. I guess when you wear those clothes...well, maybe it's like method acting? When they're a Wiggle, they ARE a Wiggle. I wonder if they would have responded differently if they wore their regular clothes.

I like that they try to hold onto this image. But I'd hope that in private (with their family and friends) they could let lose and be a bit distasteful.

I'm reading a bit about David Tench. Lord Wiki mentions nothing about faking an American accent. I must be imagining that. Maybe? He says that Andrew Denton came up with the idea for Tench.

Oh no wait. I found it! I'm right. He IS faking an American accent. Okay, so I'm NOT crazy. And Lord Wiki agrees that Tench sometimes lapses into his Australian accent.

Anyway, I need to stop now and go for a swim.

I greatly enjoyed doing this post. How could it have been otherwise? The Wiggles are awesome.

Read my novel: The Dead are Online