The Wiggles Big Show (partially lost footage of Melbourne performance; 1997)

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LiveFromTheWigglesBigShowtitlecard3.jpg

Title card to the excerpt from Wiggle Time (1998), which uses the tour's title.

Status: Partially Lost

The Wiggles Big Show is a concert tour by the Australian children's group The Wiggles. The tour was in promotion for The Wiggles Movie which would be released following the tour's completion. It commenced on October 7th, 1997 at the State Sports Centre, Homebush, New South Wales[1] and concluded on December 4th, 1997 at the Derwent Entertainment Centre in Tasmania[2]. The tour would be the group's first large-scale tour and the first to perform in arenas. A show at the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Centre on November 7th[3] would be recorded, but unlike how much The Wiggles filmed concerts that would get home media releases, the concert is one of many concerts the group recorded that has never seen a home media release and has never been seen in its entirety.

Setlist

Prior to August 2022, it was unknown what the full setlist was. Complete footage of Hot Potato, Can You (Point Your Fingers And Do The Twist?), Di Dicki Do Dum, Wake Up Jeff!, Wave To Wags, Tap Wags, Quack Quack, Five Little Ducks, Baby Baluga, Nya Nya Nya, Ooh It's Captain Feathersword, Get Ready To Wiggle and Wiggly Medley exists[4] via episodes of The Wiggles first television series, their short series Let's Wiggle and VideoNow Jr. releases of the former's episodes and the Disney Channel promo has clips from We Like To Say Hello, D.O.R.O.T.H.Y. (My Favorite Dinosaur) and Henry's Dance.[5] A presumed setlist from the tour (in which the concert that was recorded) was found on setlist.fm and a lot of the songs list on the site match the songs that have surviving footage, but it was unconfirmed if it was the actual setlist from the concert[6]. In June 2022 a clip from the concert shown in Anthony Field's Instagram story shows a song that is not found in the setlist, Dorothy The Dinosaur. The upload of the YouTube compilation that followed two months later revealed the rest of the songs in the setlist along with three other songs previously unknown to have been performed, Rock-A-Bye Your Bear, Romp Bomp A Stomp and Five Little Joeys.

Availability

The first released songs from the film were included as a bonus on the 1998 remake of the Wiggle Time video, with more songs appearing throughout their first TV series on the Seven Network. Their first TV Series would be released on DVD in November 2005, but the performance of Raffi's "Baby Baluga" was excluded due to licensing issues but it did air on Playhouse Disney in North America. An episode from their second TV Series includes a performance of Wake Up Jeff! that was not included in the previous series. Later in 2005, a few episodes of TV series 1 were released as part of VideoNow's Jr. titles in North America. A couple of 3-pack releases containing the "Wiggly Opera" and "Foodman" episodes are notable for having a few bonus "Let's Wiggle" segments at the end which adds extra footage that wasn't previously seen. One being a performance of "Get Ready To Wiggle" that wasn't featured in TV Series 1.

In November 2019, a new splash of information came through after a video containing lots of mid-September 2000 commercials from Australian kids channels was uploaded to YouTube by user StuTwo. Among the commercials was a Disney Channel Australia promo for an airing of the Disneyland special "The Wiggles in Disneyland" and an airing of a TV Special titled "The Wiggles Big Show". The promo contain footage from the November 1997 Melbourne concert that has never been seen before and confirms more songs were performed at the concert[7]. Meaning that footage from the concert was aired as a 60-minute[8] TV special on the Australian Disney Channel[9]. It is also speculated that the special with the concert footage may have presumably aired on the channel sometime in 1999, as it was a part of a series of Wiggles specials that aired on the Australian Disney Channel throughout the year[10] as a result of the positive reception of the Disneyland special. No recordings of the special have surfaced online.

On November 6, 2020, fan Jack Tori asked Anthony Field over Twitter if the concert can be found and uploaded as part of The Wiggles' Unreleased NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN Specials series[11]. Field announced just days later that he found a copy of the concert and reveals plans on digitizing it.[12] In February 2022, the group revealed in a live chat of the 2020 Bushfire Relief concert video that the concert is currently getting a restoration[13]. Three months later, Anthony revealed on Twitter that the concert is finally being digitized (meaning that the restoration process is done), he also hope to have the concert up sometime soon on the channel[14]. Anthony later tweeted that the digitizing is done and getting the concert ready[15]. On June 7, 2022, Anthony later posted a clip of the concert on his Instagram story[16]. Two months later on August 15th, the group's official channel uploaded a cleaner version of the Get Ready To Wiggle performance[17]. Three days later, a compilation of songs performed at the concert (taken from the Let's Wiggle short series) was uploaded to the group's channel. We Like To Say Hello and various other song prologues from the concert are the only pieces of content from the concert to have not surfaced.

It's unclear whether Hot Potatoes Studios still has the complete recording of the show in their archives. The likelihood of them actively searching for and retrieving the full raw footage of the concert is quite unsuccessful.

Gallery

Promo

Mirror of the Disney Channel Australia promo for the special.

Videos

Mirror of Anthony Field's Instagram story where an unseen clip of the concert is shown off.

Official upload of Get Ready To Wiggle from the concert.

Compilation of songs from the concert (We Like To Say Hello and various prologues are not included).

Fanmade 'restoration' of the same concert, featuring previously released songs and one extended prologue of Wake Up Jeff! song (taken from TV Series 2: Episode 23 - Communication)

Images

  • Screenshot of Anthony's tweet announcing the concert's discovery

    Screenshot of Anthony's tweet announcing the concert's discovery

  • Screenshot of the comment from the group reveals the February 2022 status of the concert's release

    Screenshot of the comment from the group reveals the February 2022 status of the concert's release

  • Screenshot of Anthony's tweets on Twitter confirming the digitizing process of the concert prior to its release

    Screenshot of Anthony's tweets on Twitter confirming the digitizing process of the concert prior to its release

External Links

See Also

TV

Concerts

Videos

Music

Miscellaneous

Reference

  1. ↑ Archive of the group's website on the tour's start date
  2. ↑ Archive of the group's website on the tour's conclusion date
  3. ↑ https://wigglesconcertarchive.fandom.com/wiki/1997-11-07_-_Melbourne_Sports_and_Entertainment_Centre
  4. ↑ Twitter page dedicated to the special with clips from the concert Retrieved 16 Apr '21
  5. ↑ YouTube playlist of the surviving footage Retrieved 16 Apr '21
  6. ↑ Setlist.fm page on the tour's setlist that may have been used in the concert Retrieved 07 Jun '22
  7. ↑ YouTube video with the promo in question
  8. ↑ Wigglepedia page on the special's runtime
  9. ↑ Disney Channel page on the special's airing Retrieved 23 Dec '20
  10. ↑ A mention of a series of broadcast specials about The Wiggles Retrieved 3 Aug '21
  11. ↑ Anthony Field's tweet on the concert's possible release
  12. ↑ Anthony Field's tweet on finding a copy of the concert. Retrieved 13 Nov '20
  13. ↑ Comment on the concert's restoration Retrieved 11 Feb '22
  14. ↑ Digitizing news Retrieved 23 May '22
  15. ↑ Finish digitizing Retrieved 24 May '22
  16. ↑ Re-upload of the Instagram story on YouTube Retrieved 07 Jun '22
  17. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0KxZq4fbOs&ab_channel=TheWiggles
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