Santa's Rockin'! Live In Concert (partially lost footage of Sydney Entertainment Centre performance; 2004)

The tour's poster

Status: Partially Lost

Santa's Rockin'! is the twentieth album by Australian children's group The Wiggles that was released on October 5, 2004 in North America and two days later in Australia. The album's accompanying video was released a month earlier in North America before reaching the Australian market on November 10, 2004. It would be the group's third Christmas album after Yule Be Wiggling four years earlier and would feature some famous guest singers like Barry Williams from the Brady Bunch, Ross Wilson (as the character King Mando previously seen in Space Dancing) and John Fogerty of iconic roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival. In December 2004, the Santa's Rockin'! Live In Concert tour would commence to promote the album and video.

A setlist from the programme on a different tour date

The tour only spanned 11 dates from December 1 at the Perth Burswood Dome to December 20 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre^[1]. The reason why the short number of shows is probably down to before the tour began, Anthony Field broke his wrist while trying to catch a falling prop during a concert in New York a month earlier and his place being filled by backup dancer Brett Clarke until December 15th^[2]. The tour would also be notably for debuting a new Big Red Car model that would later be seen in the 2006 video "Here Comes The Big Red Car", the last tour to include ramps at the front of the stage for the Big Red Car and dancers (expect for the Tsunami Relief Benefit Concert a year later, which was the last show to use ramps), the second tour to have Ross Wilson do guest vocals on two songs (Eagle Rock and This Little Baby Is Born Again), the first time Nicky Nacky Nocky Noo was performed since 1997 tour, the debut of the song Mop Mop that would be seen in Sailing Around The World, The last time when Silver Bells That Ring In The Night and Wiggly Christmas Medley is performed, and their first tour to be performed in Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Victoria (Australian state), Australia.

One of the Sydney concerts (either December 18th, 19th or 20th) would be recorded but never got a home media release. The only time songs from the concert were used, was in the group's fifth television series The Wiggles Show that started airing in June 2006. The Monkey Dance and The Wiggle Owl Medley were featured as a special feature titled "The Wiggles LIVE 2004 Sydney Entertainment Centre" on the "Happy 15th Birthday" DVD that was released in August 2006 to various Australian Newspapers^[3]. It was assumed that songs seen in the series were the only songs performed at the concert, but audience and press photos of songs that were performed on the tour debunked that and a programme from one of the tour dates also shows songs that didn't appear in the available footage and doesn't have any songs that appear in the available footage. It was also discovered that the Latin American television series also called The Wiggles Show used audience footage from the Sydney concert for their concert segments.

A video entitled "Wiggle All The Way-- Live!" was advertised in the booklet for the North American release of the Santa's Rockin' video projected for a Winter 2005 release. However the video was cancelled before release and LIVE! Hot Potatoes was released instead. It was previously believed that "Wiggle All The Way-- Live!" was an early title for LIVE! Hot Potatoes but it wouldn't be until October 14, 2023 when it was revealed that "Wiggle All The Way-- Live!" was a completely different video and was in fact the Sydney concert from the Santa's Rockin'! Live In Concert tour^[4]. It's very likely the release was cancelled due to the small window from recording the concert to releasing the concert in due time. Aside from the already available clips, no other footage from the concert has been released.