Popular Aussie quartet to wiggle on into E Center

Australia's hottest entertainment export isn't Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman or AC/DC.

For the past two years the highest-grossing performers from Down Under have been The Wiggles — docking Thursday at the E Center with their "Sailing Around the World" tour.

Now in its 15th year, The Wiggles began in the early 1990s when Greg Page, Anthony Field and Murray Cook were studying early-childhood development at Macquarie University in Sydney. Page, the group's lead singer, was a couple of years behind Field and Cook, both of whom have experience teaching in the classroom.

Now their "classrooms" are arenas and theaters all over the world.

"It has been amazing," Page said by phone from Long Beach, Calif. "We never dreamed of what it would turn out to be."

The three began writing children's songs as one of their education projects, then enlisted Jeff Fatt — who would eventually become the fourth Wiggle — to help with the music. (Fatt and Field had both been members of a popular Australian rock band, The Cockroaches, during the 1980s.)

Page said what sets The Wiggles apart from other shows is that youngsters in their audiences are treated as if they were little adults, not babies. "That's what we learned at university," Page said. "Children have brains and can speak for themselves. There's no need to talk down to them about things from their world. We focus on things they can understand.

"The unique thing is that the stars of our shows are also the creators. It really did stem from our teaching background."

Three of the four Wiggles are married with children. Page and his wife are parents of a boy, 16, and a girl, 9. Cook, a vocalist and guitarist, has a daughter, 12, and a son, 9. Field, who is vocalist-guitarist and drummer, is the father of two girls — 2 years old and seven months old. Fatt, the group's keyboardist, is not married.

Known throughout the United States from TV shows on both ABC and the cable Disney Channel, each member of the Aussie "Fab Four" always performs in an outfit featuring his individual color — Page wears a yellow shirt, Field's is blue, Cook's is bright red and Fatt's is purple.