Though Katherine has long outgrown the Wiggles (quickly hides all their music in case she develops a sudden yen for them again), it’s kind of sad to see this.
The Wiggles have sadly announced today that Greg Page, also known as the Yellow Wiggle, is unable to continue performing with The Wiggles due to a chronic condition and has reached the decision to leave the group.
Greg has been suffering symptoms for many months, affecting his ability to perform. The condition is related to blood pressure and while in no way life threatening it affects his balance, breathing and coordination at unpredictable times and with varying severity. Greg has discovered he is genetically predisposed to this condition and that he now needs to focus on managing his health.
Greg is a founding member of The Wiggles and has devoted 15 years to the group. The whole band, crew, and all Wiggles staff, have expressed their sadness and their wishes for Greg to overcome his health problems.
The news release goes on to say that it’s “orthostatic intolerance,” i.e., his heart doesn’t compensate, blood-pressure-wise, for when he stands up or when other environmental changes occur. Yikes.
The group will continue to tour and record.
I poked fun at the Wiggles above, but that’s part-reflex — in reality, they’re a pretty cool group, and Katherine enjoyed (in her time) singing and dancing to their performances on the TV (Playhouse Disney).
Nowadays she’s much more into cheesy Japanese monster movies, like “Destroy All Monsters” and “”Destroy All Planets” (which, interestingly, have nothing to do with each other, or the Wiggles).
(via Steve)