Anthony Field

At 61 years old, Anthony Field has this physical status:

Anthony Donald Joseph Field AM (born 8 May 1963) is an Australian singer, actor, songwriter, and producer.

He is best known as the only original member of the children's group The Wiggles and the 1980s and 1990s pop band The Cockroaches.

As a youth, he helped discover The Cockroaches alongside his brothers, Paul and John.

The Cockroaches released two albums and enjoyed moderate success, but Field's service in Australia's regular army was interrupted until the late 1980s, when they disbanded. Field received early childhood education at Macquarie University and formed The Wiggles with fellow classmates Murray Cook, Greg Page, and former bandmate Jeff Fatt in 1991.

He spent two years as a preschooler before the success of The Wiggles compelled him to concentrate on children's music full time.

Despite Field's adamant opposition to touring, The Wiggles became one of Australia's most popular and influential groups.

Field, who wore blue when appearing with the company, was in charge of the production of their stage and TV shows, CDs, and DVDs.

His struggles with chronic pain and depression, which nearly forced him out of the organization at the time of its triumph, are well-documented.

Early life and education

Field was born in Kellyville, New South Wales, Australia. He is the youngest of seven children and grew up in north western Sydney. He came from a long line of musicians, especially the women in his family. His great-grandfather, "Queenie Paul," was known for his appearance at the Tivoli Theatre in Sydney, and his grandmother Kathleen followed silent movies in Cobar's mining town. Marie Field's mother made sure that all of her seven children learned how to play at least one musical instrument. He attended St. Joseph's College, which his great-grandfather Paddy Condon, an Italian immigrant and master stonemason, helped create. He and his brothers Paul and John formed the Cockroaches in 1979, while studying at St. Joseph's.

He was inspired by his sister Colleen to study early childhood education, and he was convinced that teaching preschool children "was my calling." He was also attracted to the profession's flexibility, artistic style, and a lack of discipline, which was different from his experience in boarding school. When the Cockroaches were successful, the field was discouraged from attending, but "perhaps irrational, but still incredibly true, feelings of inadequacy and depression" were behind them. He decided he didn't want to tour any longer by his mid-twenties, so he took two breaks. In the 5th/7th Battalion, stretcher bearer, and ambulance pilot, he was in Australia's regular army from 1982 to 1985. He played the bagpipes in parades and training missions but he resigned from military service in July 1985 and recovered from a bad backlog as a result of his preparation. He went backpacking in the United Kingdom, enjoying roots music, children's music by artists like Raffi, and children's books.

Field enrolled at Macquarie University as the Cockroaches disbanded in the early 1990s. While studying at university, he decided to record an album of children's music, enlisting the help of fellow Cockroaches roadie and keyboardist Jeff Fatt, and Macquarie instructor and composer Phillip Wilcher, who later left the group.

Personal life

Field was named "Bachelor of the Year" in Cleo in 1999. Michaela Patisteas, a former dancer whose family owned Griffiths Coffee in Melbourne, married him in 2003. They have three children, who have joined the Field family trade by appearing in several of the Wiggles' television shows and videos. Field, a registered breeder of Miniature Fox Terriers, performed voiceovers for Channel 7 in Australia, beginning in 2007.

Field wrote, "My love of cricket is abiding," a sport that "instills the same passion and enthusiasm in me as it does for many in North America." He is a fan of the Wests Tigers, an Australian rugby league team. Julio Iglesias, a singer, is also a fan of the artist. Field's fitness progressed to the point where his training regimen became comparable to that of an elite athlete, he began to be interested in gymnastics and acrobatics.

Field went public about his struggle with clinical depression in mid-2007 to bring more attention to the condition. He has said that "being on the road is a dangerous career for someone with depression," but he has dealt with it through diet, exercise, writing about it, and having a good support system (including his father and his bandmate Murray Cook). In his 2012 book How I Got My Wiggle Back, he chronicled his health problems and how he beat them.

Field is a devout Catholic, something he said helped him cope with his chronic illness and despair, as well as the spiritual practices of prayer and devotion to the Virgin Mary, as expressed by Our Lady of Guadalupe. In Spanish, he has two major tattoos on his arms: one is the Virgin Mary with the words "My life is in your hands"; the other is a heart with the words "My love, my heart"; the other is a heart. On his arms, his wife and his three children are also tattooed. During a visit to Mexico on a long vacation, he revealed that he obtained his tattoo of the Virgin, which he hid from followers for a long time. "In a time of mania," he says.

Field was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia on January 26, 2010 "for service to the arts, particularly children's entertainment, and to the community as a benefactor and funder for a number of charities."

Field, along with fellow Wiggles member Lachlan Gillespie, formed the Unusual Commoners, a group for adult fans, which featured a blend of classic Australian, Irish, Scottish, and folk songs. In late 2018, they held their first international show in St. John's, Newfoundland.

In July 2020, he and the other classic Wiggles appeared in "Circles Baby"'s Soul Movers music video.

Source