Music for Children and The Wiggles

This page is dedicated to two special children, Connor and Laura Wilcher.

Phillip Wilcher has always held the belief that where creativity has a child’s heart Music for Children at an Early Childhood Level serves as a primary source of education, that through Melody alone much about Life can be learned to offer hope and healing to the world.

After working as an Assistant Editor for the Classical/Educational Division of J Albert & Sons Pty Ltd, but then to be later employed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation during the early-mid 1980s, Wilcher was worked as Music Assistant at the Institute of Early Childhood, then a tertiary institute under the auspice of Sydney College of Advanced Education before it amalgamated with Macquarie University. It was at the Institute of Early Childhood Wilcher first met Anthony Field who approached him with the idea of recording an album of children’s music stemming from his studies with Rosemary Harle. Thus, “The Wiggles” was born.

Although Wilcher’s time with “The Wiggles” was short lived, to this day he maintains an active interest in Music at an educational level, offering to mentor young composers and performers in the hope that the good deed as conferred upon him through mentors such as composers Miriam Hyde and Dulcie Holland is paid forward.

“It is refreshing to find Phillip Wilcher composing quality music for this very special market. A MUSICAL OFFERING is so very appropriate for the young and commendable for its originality and captivating melodies.”

Rosemary Harle
M.A; Dip. Mus. Ed; A.T.C.L; T.Mus.A:
Dip. Kodaly Inst. (Hungary); Lic. Dalc.
Euryth; M.I.M.T; M.A.C.E.

He might have missed out on international fame and fortune, but ex-Wiggle Phillip Wilcher has no regrets. In a rare interview, he talks to Cheryl Critchley about leaving the skivvies behind : Cheryl Critchley of the Herald Sun interviews The Fifth Man:

Jeff, Anthony, Murray, Greg and Phillip. Phillip who?

Few fans of Australia’s biggest kiddie export, The Wiggles, would know that the original band had five members. Or that, in the early days they didn’t wear skivvies.

The Wiggles’ 1991 debut CD, The Wiggles, featured Jeff Fatt, Anthony Field, Murray Cook, Greg Page and Phillip Wilcher – in loud shirts. While he hasn’t raked in millions like his former bandmates, Sydney-based Wilcher says he is happy composing highly regarded classical music.

He still works at Macquarie University where he met Field, Cook and Page. They were studying early childhood development and he worked with the Early Childhood Music Program. The band was Field’s idea and Wilcher says he approached him and the others. Field knew Fatt from their days with late 1980s band The Cockroaches.

Wilcher, who appeared on a couple of early videos, left after the first album. He says he left as a performer around September 1991, because “I wasn’t comfortable performing with them”. But he thought he had a verbal agreement to work on the second CD. “It was at some stage verbally suggested I remain as a composer for the group and I had written a sizeable portfolio of works for their second CD. I went to the States to perform in May of 1992. On my return, the second album had been recorded and I was informed by Anthony Field that I was no longer required,” he recalls.

That first album has since been re-recorded without Wilcher. Wiggle Time features some of the original songs, like Rock-a-Bye Your Bear and Dorothy the Dinosaur, but has mostly new tracks. “I don’t know if the original album as it was recorded can be purchased anywhere,” Wilcher says. “It was re-recorded around 1998-99 and released under a new title. I did, however, pick up a copy of the original album from a Cash Converters store for seven dollars.”

The Wiggles’ management declined to comment on Wilcher’s departure and why he was “let go”. “I don’t think my classical background was at all too serious.” Wilcher says of his departure. “I contributed the most to the debut album which at that time landed the group a contract with the ABC to produce a further two CDs. I believe at that time it was the goal of the group to focus on developmentally appropriate material for children. Such was their education at university in early childhood music – and such was my know-how.”

Wilcher is critical of mass market children’s entertainment. He also prefers High-5 over his old band. “I don’t understand ‘big money commercial entertainment’,” he says. “I only understand truth in all things. Composing can be very difficult, or it can be very easy. My concerns are that a composer – any composer – be articulate and true. I very much admire the work of High-5. They successfully explore the five various components that come together to make music: rhythm, beat, melody, harmony and timbre. And they do it in a way which is fresh and entertaining and always intelligent.”

A well -respected composer, mostly of piano music, Wilcher says classical music is, and always has been, his first love. “More than that, I believe in the real thing whether it be the cavernous icons of the Stone Age or the music of J.S. Bach, a free hand sketch by Jean Cocteau or the choreography of Martha Graham or Graeme Murphy, the vocalizations of Janet Baker or Jeff Buckley. This does not include The Wiggles – sorry guys!”

Respect doesn’t pay the bills, however, and Wilcher, who is single, admits his chosen career path is hardly lucrative.

“One of Australia’s most respected composers said to me the other day that the only good composer is a dead composer. It is very difficult to make a living as a composer, but any composer – any real composer, is not motivated by money. I have never wished to be a Wiggle. I am an artist. Making money – especially wads of cash – is the least of my concerns.”

As for royalties from his Wiggles CD go, Wilcher doesn’t get overly excited when he receives a cheque. “My last cheque was around $5.67. It was a difficult decision deciding whether to bank the cheque or sell it. I probably would have gotten more had I sold it.”

Wilcher isn’t bitter about his Wiggles experience, but admits he hasn’t kept in contact with his former bandmates.

While most of today’s fans wouldn’t remember his time with the group, he has been noticed in the street. “I was once recognized in our local Movies 4 U video store,” he recalls. “It was funny. This guy with muscle to Montezuma excused himself and said : “Are you a Wiggle?”

So what colour skivvy would Wilcher have worn if he’d stayed with the band? “I’d be the black Wiggle!” he laughs.

Cheryl Critchely
The Herald Sun

The Wiggle who wouldn’t : One goes classical

His old mates jump around in colorful T-shirts, singing tunes titled “Romp Bomp a Stomp” and “Hot Potato”.

Meanwhile, he sports a brocade-collared tuxedo and bow tie, composes sonatas for the piano, and writes scholarly articles such as “Chopin’s Mazurka in F minor Op. 68, No. 4 (An Analysis).”

Remember the fifth Beatle? Actually, a handful of men lay claim to that title, but among them was bass guitarist and artist Stuart Sutcliffe. Sutcliffe amicably left The Beatles to concentrate on his artwork.
And, in the beginning (in 1991), there was a fifth Wiggle – Phillip Wilcher – who also was called by a different muse.

Wilcher had a background in early childhood education and worked in the music department at Sydney’s Macquarie University, The Wiggles’ Liverpool. A year after the release of the “Wiggle Time “ cassette, Wilcher left to follow his own star : classical music. Now, 44, he lives in Australia and composes works largely for piano and voice. While The Wiggles have achieved gold and platinum albums and won repeated honors from the Australian Record Industry Association and the Australian Performing Rights Association, Wilcher has racked up his own accolades and gold and platinum ARIA awards.

“No, we haven’t really spoken for years and years,” says The Wiggles founder, Anthony Field, who calls the former Wiggle “a brilliant pianist and composer.”

Wilcher left before The Wiggles had really gone anywhere, Field says. “I’m not sure his heart was so into where we were heading.”

Last December, The (Melbourne) Herald Sun printed an article asking, “Where are you Philip (sic) Wilcher……” and razzing the bloke about leaving a group that’s raking in millions.

Well, no wonder Wilcher didn’t answer, with their misspelling his first name.

He’s not exactly underground; his biography is posted on the Australian Music Centre Web site, www.amcoz.com.au/comp/w/pwilch.htm.

From the sounds of it, Wilcher’s personality would have been a wobbly fit with the full-blown Wiggles. Two of his children’s pieces were included in an Australian piano CD recorded in 2001. Titles: “ A Winter Reverie” and “Summer Dance”. That summer dance was likely not on the order of “Can You Point Your Finger and Do the Twist?”

To each, his own. So The Wiggles who kept wiggling, and to the fifth who moved on, we say: Good on ya, mate!

Janet Filips
Journalist
Portland, Oregan.
USA

The official breakdown sheet of contributions to the debut album cites Wilcher as a major contributor to the album both musically and financially.

The breakdown issued by APRA shows that Wilcher contributed 32.80% of the music as well as $825 to put towards the recording cost of the album.

Moreover, Wilcher was a key contributor to the traditional songs on the album, arranging and performing the majority of these songs. However, this is not reflected in the breakdown as the credit for those songs were officially split between the whole group (Trad, Arr. The Wiggles).

ABC Enterprises acknowledged that Wilcher's contributions exceeded what is officially documented in the breakdown sheet in a letter dated May 1995.

Through this documentation, it is understood that Fatt's contributions to the album was the sampling for the first three tracks as well as the voice of Mischief the Monkey