THE Wiggles, the band that has brought so much joy to millions of children around the world, was formed out of an immense sadness.
For the first time, the two brothers fundamental to the formation of the Wiggles – manager Paul Field, 47, and his brother Anthony, 45, the Blue Wiggle – have spoken about the tragic circumstances behind the creation of the world’s most popular group for young children.
The death of Paul’s daughter Bernadette at the age of eight months had a devastating effect on everyone involved.
In the 1980s, before the formation of the Wiggles, both brothers were in the popular Australian pub band The Cockroaches.
They were on tour in Queensland on September 2, 1988 – a date they will never forget.
Paul had spoken to Bernadette the night before. Her last words to him were “ta ta”, her way of saying goodbye. By some terrible irony, it was Red Nose Day, the day marked for the annual fundraising event for sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS.
Paul’s wife, Pauline, was visiting her parents, and had talked about Red Nose Day that morning before going into Bernadette’s room to check on her. She was dead.
Pauline rang her husband in tears.
“I felt like we had both been thrown off a cliff,” Paul told The Weekend Australian Magazine. “We had a beautiful funeral for Bernadette, with music and singing. I’ve blocked a lot out but I do recall carrying her coffin from the hearse to the graveside. It was a devastating, wrong moment.”
The Cockroaches went back on tour shortly afterwards, trying to create a sense of normality, but nothing was ever the same again.
Anthony Field left the band shortly afterwards and went back to university to finish his degree in early childhood education.
In 1991, he formed the Wiggles. Their first album was dedicated to Bernadette.
Paul remained “surrounded by darkness” for years, and tattooed Bernadette’s name on his right arm. “Every day when I get changed, I see that and I love it,” he said. The names of his four surviving children are tattooed on his other arm.
Ten years ago, Anthony asked him to be manager of the Wiggles. The band has long raised money for SIDS.
“When I think of how much joy the Wiggles have brought to children, it’s good to know that out of an event so horrifying, something good has come,” Paul said.
Anthony said Bernadette’s death had a profound effect which ultimately led to the formation of the Wiggles. Not being married himself, at first he could not fully relate to his brother’s grief. He’s now married, and his own children remind him very much of his dead niece.
“Bernadette has a lot to do with where I am now,” he said. “The Wiggles would always have done charity work with children but if Bernadette hadn’t died there is no way I’d have the empathy that I do now.”