C'mon, get Wiggly with it!

Jeff Fatz with his fellow Wiggles. Photo / Supplied

Look away now if you don't have children. You are unlikely to empathise with my excitement at talking to a short, sleepy, skivvy-wearing Australian keyboard player. But other parents of ankle-biters will certainly appreciate the thrill.

"OMG!" emailed my Kiwi writer pal from New York. "I bet I'm your only friend who is jealous that you get to interview Jeff the purple Wiggle. I would be a god to my 3-year-old if I'd got to do that job. Did you ask him about Greg versus Sam and what Sam was like, and how is Greg, and what's wrong with him, anyway?"

See, this is the kind of devotion the Wiggles, touring New Zealand this month, inspire among parents of toddlers. In a genre comprising the slightly sleazy Hi-5, the creepy Barney, and the irritating Doodle-Bops, the Wiggles actually play good songs. "The idiom of the music is very familiar; the lyrics are the important things for kids so we try to keep the melody lines as simple as possible, says Jeff (Fatt), on the line from Wiggles HQ in Sydney. "We float around and maybe focus on one style - Latin or classical - but it always comes back to the pop idiom."

The Wiggles have been the top-earning Australian entertainers for four years in a row and earned an impressive A$45 million ($6.4 million) in 2007 alone. They've come a long way from humble beginnings 19 years ago when a group of student teachers got together to entertain children. They became known by the colours of their skivvies - Greg the yellow Wiggle, Anthony the blue Wiggle, Murray the red Wiggle and Jeff the purple Wiggle.

Each has their own schtick: Greg used to do magic tricks; Anthony likes to eat a lot; Murray plays his guitar; and Jeff is always falling asleep. In 2006, lead singer Greg was forced to retire because of an illness that gave him vertigo and was replaced by understudy Sam.

The first thing I ask Jeff is how Sam has settled in. "Sam has been really well accepted," he says. Admittedly not in our household, but Jeff points out a whole new generation of Wiggles fans now see Sam as the main singer. But 55-year-old Jeff is stumped when I ask if he could imagine a day when all of the original Wiggles are replaced. "That's a very difficult thing to get your head around. We will continue doing this for as long as you can do it. I guess I'd like to think our songs will live on."

Their pre-school demographic doesn't seem to notice they're getting long in the tooth and Anthony is partial to fake tan and teeth whitener.

Anyway, it's the musicianship of the group which attracts praise from grown-ups with tributes paid by serious musos such as John Fogarty (Creedence Clearwater Revival) and Tim Finn, who did a duet with the band. The Wiggles' ability to attract top talent is undiminished. They have just recorded a track with Kylie Minogue.

"She was in Sydney doing her show and we got the call and two days later said she was available so we dropped everything," says Jeff.

Minogue recorded the track, Monkey Man, in a couple of hours in the Wiggles' recording studio on her way to her own soundcheck. "She's an absolute darling," Jeff says.

But despite the hook-ups with big stars the Wiggles have not changed their act much or bowed to passing trends in kids' entertainment.

"We have maintained what we have been doing from the start; pace-wise we keep it the same, not overloading [kids] too much."

Jeff laughs at any suggestion they have become slaves to fashion. "We started out in skivvies!" Even the group's successful entry into the US market has not prompted any major changes to the formula. "We still say ban-ar-na not ba-nan-uh," Jeff says.

The Wiggles are reluctant to get into the debate about children and television-watching. "We provide the options but it depends on the sway the parents have over their children. It's a very personal thing." And the group's messages to their young audience - eat your fruit salad, it's fun to go to the doctor, wake up Jeff! - have remained gentle. So, what is Sam's schtick? "He seems to lose things a lot." And does Jeff mind being ribbed for falling asleep? "It's not so bad as you get older."

* The Wiggles play Auckland's Vector Arena on March 28 and 29. For tour details go to www.thewiggles.co.nz