
The Original Wiggles Reunion Show For Bush Fire Relief were a set of benefit concerts organized by The Wiggles and held at the Castle Hill RSL Club on January 17th and 18th of 2020, with all profits going towards Australian Red Cross and WIRES (NSW Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service) to provide relief for victims of the 2019-2020 Australian bushfires season. The January 17th show was also livestreamed at 8:30 pm as a Pay-Per-View event hosted by Epicentre.tv with proceeds going to the aforementioned charities, and the VOD of the show was available for a very short time before being taken down, although the group eventually uploaded the entire show themselves on their personal YouTube channel on February 11, 2022.
The concerts were notable for being a reunion of the original lineup of the band (Murray Cook, Greg Page, Jeff Fatt, and Anthony Field) and is the second reunion of the original lineup following the prior three benefit concerts performed during the group's 25th anniversary in 2016. At the end of the January 17th show, Page collapsed on stage after suffering from a cardiac arrest, and the January 18th show featured several Wiggles cast members and other guests performing in his absence while wearing yellow skivvies in tribute.
Setlist[]
January 17th[]
- Joannie Works With One Hammer
- Rock-A-Bye Your Bear
- Wake Up Jeff!
- Fruit Salad
- Captain Feathersword Fell Asleep on His Pirate Ship (Quack Quack)
- Five Little Ducks
- D.O.R.O.T.H.Y. (My Favourite Dinosaur)
- Look Both Ways
- Dorothy's Dance Party
- Romp Bomp A Stomp
- Ballerina, Ballerina
- I'm a Cow
- We're Dancing With Wags The Dog
- Dance Wags, Dance!
- Wiggle Bay
- Toot Toot, Chugga Chugga, Big Red Car
- Henry's Dance
- Henry Works With Eight Tentacles
- Can You (Point Your Fingers And Do The Twist?)
- Shaky Shaky
- The Four Presents
- Play Your Guitar With Murray
- I Love It When It Rains
- Who's In The Wiggly Band
- Di Dicki Do Dum
- Nya Nya Nya
- The Monkey Dance
- Go Santa Go
- Get Ready To Wiggle
- Encore - Hot Potato
January 18th[]
- Joannie Works With One Hammer (sung by Paul Paddick)
- Rock-A-Bye Your Bear (sung by Paul Paddick)
- Wake Up Jeff! (sung by Paul Paddick)
- The Monkey Dance (sung by Simon Pryce)
- Fruit Salad (sung by Jack Gatto)
- Look Both Ways (sung by Simon Pryce)
- Captain Feathersword Fell Asleep on His Pirate Ship (Quack Quack) (sung by Jack Gatto)
- Five Little Ducks (sung by Murray Cook)
- Toot Toot, Chugga Chugga, Big Red Car (sung by Simon Pryce)
- Romp Bomp A Stomp (sung by Emma Watkins)
- Dorothy's Dance Party (sung by Emma Watkins and Captain Feathersword)
- Ballerina, Ballerina (sung by Simon Pryce)
- I'm a Cow (Sung by Jeff Fatt)
- We're Dancing With Wags The Dog (sung by Paul Field)
- Wiggle Bay (sung by Simon Pryce)
- Henry's Dance (sung by Emma Watkins)
- Henry Works With Eight Tentacles (sung by Jack Gatto)
- Can You (Point Your Fingers And Do The Twist?) (sung by Simon Pryce)
- Shaky Shaky (sung by Jack Gatto)
- Play Your Guitar With Murray (sung by Simon Pryce)
- I Love It When It Rains (sung by Emma Watkins)
- Di Dicki Do Dum (Sung by Simon Pryce)
- Nya Nya Nya (Sung by Simon Pryce)
- Go Santa Go (Sung by Simon Pryce)
- Encore - Hot Potato (Sung by John Field)
Performers[]
The OG Wiggles[]
- Greg Page - Lead Vocals
- Jeff Fatt - Keyboard, Vocals, Lead Vocals on "I'm a Cow", Voice of Henry the Octopus
- Murray Cook - Guitar, Vocals, Lead Vocals on "Five Little Ducks"
- Anthony Field - Guitar, Vocals, Banjo, Bagpipes, Bass (on "Romp Bomp A Stomp" at January 17th show only)
Cast[]
- Paul Paddick - Captain Feathersword, Backing Vocals, Voice of Wags the Dog, Santa Claus
- Tasmin Cummins - Dorothy the Dinosaur
- Maria Field - Voice of Dorothy the Dinosaur
- Michael King - Wags the Dog
- Callum Hendry-Hodsdon - Henry the Octopus, Ballerino
- Leanne Halloran - Officer Beaples
- Emma Watkins - Irish Dancer
- Isabella Fitzpatrick - Dancer
- Taryn Priadko - Dancer
- Kate Halloran - Dancer
- Alicia Bryant - Dancer
- Jordan Walter - Dancer
- Larissa O'Donovan - Dancer
- Holly McGlinchy - Dancer
- Lucia Field - Ballerina (January 17th show)
- Paloma Hendry-Hodsdon - Ballerina (January 18th show)
Additional Yellow Wiggles[]
- Paul Paddick
- Emma Watkins
- Simon Pryce
- Jack Gatto
- Paul Field
- John Field
Musicians[]
- Alex Keller - Bass, Acoustic Guitar
- Steve Pace - Drums
- Mark Harris - Double Bass, Backing Vocals
- Gary Daley - Accordion
Trivia[]
- Former Wiggles choreographer Leanne Halloran made a guest appearance during both shows reprising her role of Officer Beaples.
- Accordionist Gary Daley and double bassist/vocalist Mark Harris of Australian children's group "Lah Lah" performed as guest musicians during the shows.
- Murray Cook's band The Soul Movers and Nathan Foley from Hi-5 gave pre-show guest performances on January 17th.
- The January 17th show suffered from some electrical issues with the sound that required the first 6 songs to be performed acoustically, while also resulting in Maria Field's recording of Dorothy's voice initially being inaudible.
- "The Four Presents" was performed live for the first time ever during the January 17th show.
- When been introduced as a band member during the January 17th show, bass player Alex Keller played the Queen song "Another One Bites The Dust".
- During the January 17th show, "The Monkey Dance" was initially planned to be the 4th song performed but was instead played much later in the set as the 25th song.
- During the January 18th show, Paul Paddick and John Field wore yellow skivvies from 2001-2007 (before Greg Page's first retirement), while Simon Pryce and Paul Field wore yellow skivvies from 2007-2012 (during Sam Moran's time with the group).
- Incidentally, Pryce was originally meant to become the new yellow Wiggle going forward following Moran's departure before becoming the new red Wiggle.
- Also during the show, famous Australian Elvis impersonator Jack Gatto appeared in the yellow Elvis-inspired jumpsuit seen in videos such as Yummy Yummy (during "Shaky Shaky") and The Wiggles Go Bananas! (during "The Lion is King")
- For the January 18th show, according to the Field Brothers' Facebook page[1], "Dressing Up" was meant to be performed as part of the main set, but was later removed. Also, "Dorothy (Would You Like To Dance?)" and "Wiggly Party" were also meant to be performed as encores but were eventually removed.
- "D.O.R.O.T.H.Y. (My Favourite Dinosaur)", "The Four Presents" and "Get Ready To Wiggle" were also not performed during the January 18th show.
- During the January 18th show, Jack Gatto was originally meant to sing "Can You (Point Your Fingers And Do The Twist?)", but for unknown reasons, Simon Pryce sang the song instead.
- During both shows, clips from the videos Wiggle Time!, Yummy Yummy and Toot Toot! were seen, and the video Racing to the Rainbow and The Wiggles Movie were mentioned in dialogue during the January 17th show.
- Officer Beaples is referred to with they/them pronouns in this show for the first time ever before their eventual reveal as non-binary with the announcement of Fruit Salad TV.
- The two shows were the last concerts the Wiggles gave before the COVID-19 pandemic was declared.
- The YouTube upload of the show contains content advisory warnings due to featuring footage of Greg Page's medical crisis. The upload also starts with an additional filmed segment where Page explains what happened to him and advising viewers to keep the "Chain of Survival" (a series of actions to help someone suffering from cardiac arrest) in mind to help save a person's life. The upload was also scheduled as a live premiere and had a social media worker operating The Wiggles' YouTube channel and interacting with viewers. The video has since been marked "for kids" due to YouTube's COPPA guidelines, and chat replay and comments have been disabled.
References[]
Video[]
CONTENT WARNING: This video contains material that may be harmful or distressing to some viewers.