30 Facts About Anthony Field

Anthony Donald Joseph Field was born on 8 May 1963 and is an Australian musician, actor, songwriter and producer.

Anthony Field is best known as a leader of the children's group the Wiggles and a member of the 1980s and 1990s pop band the Cockroaches.

Anthony Field attended Macquarie University to receive training in early childhood education, and founded the Wiggles with fellow students Murray Cook, Greg Page and former bandmate Jeff Fatt in 1991.

Anthony Field worked as a preschool teacher for two years before the success of the Wiggles led him to focus on children's music full-time.

Anthony Field, who wears a blue shirt while performing with the Wiggles, was responsible for the production aspects of their stage and television shows, albums, and DVDs.

Anthony Field is the youngest of seven children, and grew up in north western Sydney.

Anthony Field came from a long line of musicians, especially the women in his family.

Anthony Field attended the all-boys boarding school St Joseph's College, which his great-grandfather Paddy Condon, an Italian immigrant and master stonemason, helped build.

Anthony Field was inspired by his sister Colleen to study early childhood education, and became convinced that teaching preschool children "was my calling".

Anthony Field was attracted to the profession's freedom, artistic nature, and lack of discipline, which was different from his experience in boarding school.

Anthony Field put off university when the Cockroaches became successful, but he was dissatisfied with touring and plagued by "perhaps irrational, but very real, feelings of inadequacy and depression".

Anthony Field played the bagpipes in parades and on training missions, but ended his military service in July 1985 and suffered from a bad back as a result of his training.

Anthony Field went backpacking in the UK, listening to roots music, to children's music by artists like Raffi, and to recordings of children's books.

Anthony Field worked as a preschool teacher for two years before the success of the Wiggles and their extensive touring schedule, which he strongly disliked, forced him to quit.

Page ended up wearing a yellow shirt and Anthony Field originally wore a green polo shirt, but changed to blue to avoid clashing with Dorothy the Dinosaur.

Anthony Field created and played the original Captain Feathersword; the role was taken over by Paul Paddick in 1996.

Anthony Field began to hire teams of chiropractors for himself, his fellow bandmembers, and castmembers in every city they performed, which he credited with making it possible for them to fulfill their touring requirements.

In early 2013, Anthony Field became the only original member of the group to remain after Fatt, Cook, and Page retired.

Anthony Field remained in the group because he wanted to continue to educate children and as Wiggles manager Paul Field stated, "to placate American, British and Canadian business partners".

Anthony Field plays several instruments, including the tin whistle, bagpipes, guitar, drums, trumpet, violin, bouzouki and didgeridoo.

In 1999, Anthony Field was named "Bachelor of the Year" in Cleo.

Anthony Field, in describing his enthusiasm for competitive sports, has stated, "My love of cricket is abiding", a sport that "instills the same loyalty and passions in me as I know baseball does for many in North America".

Anthony Field is a fan of the Wests Tigers, an Australian Rugby League joint venture club between the Balmain Tigers and Western Suburbs Magpies, but has publicly stated his heart lies with Balmain.

Anthony Field went public about his experience with clinical depression in mid-2007 to draw more attention to the condition.

Anthony Field has stated that "being on the road is a dangerous job for someone with depression", but has dealt with it through diet, exercise, talking about it, and having a good support system.

Anthony Field chronicled his health struggles and how he overcame them in his 2012 book How I Got My Wiggle Back.

Anthony Field is a devout Catholic, something that he reported helped him deal with his chronic health issues and depression, especially the spiritual practices of prayer and devotion to the Virgin Mary as expressed by Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Anthony Field has two large tattoos on his arms: one is the Virgin Mary with the words "My life is in your hands" in Spanish; the other is a heart with the words, "My love, my heart" in Spanish.

Anthony Field admits that he got his tattoo of the Virgin, which he hid from fans for a long time, during a visit to Mexico while on tour in North America, in the middle of a bout with chronic pain and dental problems, as he put it, "in a moment of madness".

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