Source: http://www.aikenstandard.com

Kids can't wait to see Wiggles

The Wiggles shows in November then to have fun with the block party.

"There was a good line," said Kayla Ott, the center's marketing manager. "Ticket sales are going very well."

Staff were giving out Wiggles CDs, T-shirts and other memorabilia to children as they romped in the jumphouse, hit the dunk tank target to send someone crashing into the water and colored pictures of the Australian singing group.

In another step to help usher in the popular four-man group, Marble Slab is hosting a Wiggle Day on Saturday, Oct. 6, from noon until 2 p.m. There will be another opportunity for children to color a picture and win prizes.

"Kids can come dressed as their favorite Wiggle," Ott said.

Since 1991, The Wiggles have appeared in television series and in concerts singing children's songs. Their tour "Racing to the Rainbow Live!" will feature not only The Wiggles but their friends Captain Feathersword, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, Wags the Dog and the Wiggly Dancers.

The Wiggles will perform two shows Monday, Nov. 12, one at 3 p.m. and the other at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $25, $30 and $37 and can be purchased by visiting the box office Monday through Friday, visiting www.uscatix.com or calling (866) 722-8877.

Tickets for the Steven Curtis Champman concert and Tyler Perry's "What's Done in the Dark" are also on sale now.

The Wiggles - Early History

According to Wikipedia...

Anthony Field and Jeff Fatt had been members of the Cockroaches, a popular pub rock band which had scored a number of Top 40 hits in Australia during the 1980s.

After the Cockroaches disbanded in 1988, Field enrolled at the Institute of Early Childhood Studies at Macquarie University in Sydney. One of only a few male students in the program, Field soon met two of the other men: Greg Page and Murray Cook, both former musicians.^[2] Cook was the guitarist in a minor Sydney pop band, Bang Shang a Lang, while also working as a clerk at the Australian Taxation Office.^[3].

The group initially teamed up to produce a music performance project for their studies, but they soon began working towards the goal of being children entertainers, using the concepts of early childhood education they learned in school. Recognizing the need for quality children's music, they produced their first (self-titled) album in 1991.^[2]

Needing a keyboardist, Field asked his old bandmate, Jeff Fatt, to help out. (Fatt's reply was "Sure, but how long will it take...."^[4]). The group received songwriting help from John Field, Anthony's brother and former bandmate, as they reworked a few of the old Cockroaches tunes into children's songs. For example, "Do the Monkey" was originally a Cockroaches song with different lyrics.^[5] Another Cockroaches song, "Get Ready To Wiggle", inspired the new band's name.^[2]

The band also received keyboards and songwriting assistance from fellow Macquarie student Phillip Wilcher, whose departure from the group shortly before their international fame has earned him comparisons to Pete Best, the "fifth Beatle."^[6]