The album will also feature Lainey Wilson, Morgan Evans, Jackson Dean, Kaylee Bell, MacKenzie Porter, the Wolfe brothers, Travis Collins, Lucky Oceans and Troy Cassar-Daley.
There are now technically eight Wiggles – Anthony Field, Gillespie, Simon Pryce, Tsehay Hawkins, Evie Ferris, John Pearce, Caterina Mete and Lucia Field – two in each of the band’s signature colours: red, yellow, blue and purple.
And while they are not strictly educators, three of the original band members – Murray Cook, Anthony Field and Greg Page – met while studying to become pre-school teachers. With Jeff Fatt, they turned a pop band, The Cockroaches, into The Wiggles in 1991, and the rest was history.
That DNA remains in the band to this day, says Gillespie. “[Education] is a massive part, and it’s something we take so seriously,” he says. “I’ve always been aware of that. And there’s something so special about The Wiggles music, it connects on a level that others don’t.”
“The songs we’ve got on the album, some of them paint quite beautiful pictures, but they’re also really good songs to listen to,” Gillespie says. “It’s got a bit of everything and I think that the parents do love that when they come to a live show. They sing and dance just as much as the kids.”
The single Wiggle Up, Giddy Up! is released today. The album Wiggle Up, Giddy Up! will be released on March 7.
