Greg Page

**Gregory John "Greg" Page** is an Australian musician who is known as the leader of The Wiggles. He is the tallest Wiggle out of Murray, Anthony, Sam, Lachy, Emma, Simon and Jeff. In 2012, he was replaced by Emma Watkins. He was also temporarily replaced by Sam Moran for five years (late 2006 - early 2012) when he retired due to health issues. Prior to joining the Wiggles, he performed in several bands in secondary school. He met Anthony and Murray a few years before the Wiggles began when they were Early Education students at Macquarie University, and combined their musical backgrounds and teaching skills to form The Wiggles. He also served as a groupie for The Cockroaches. He was the youngest member of the original line-up, at the age of 19. When performing with The Wiggles, Greg Page wore a yellow shirt. Like the others, Greg Page had a schtick: his was doing magic tricks.

He has a sister named Belinda. Influenced by Anthony, he was a fan of Elvis Presley and owned the world's fourth-largest memorabilia collection, before donating a reported $1.5 million worth to a New South Wales museum.

Greg's 2005 solo album, "*Taking Care of Country*", reflects his interest in Elvis Presley's music. It was recorded with the TCB Band, Elvis Presley' backup band. In Spring 2003, Greg Page performed in Las Vegas with the TCB Band. In 2002, Greg Page sang backing vocals for Australian Elvis impersonator, Mick Gerace. Page has accumulated an extensive collection of Elvis memorabilia, including the last Cadillac owned by Elvis, his personal and movie clothing, and original TCB Band necklaces.

In 2005, Greg was told by a number of practitioners after a double hernia procedure that he had just seven years to live after being diagnosed with orthostatic intolerance. Effects of this illness included fainting, slurred speech, trembling and fatigue, all of which made him virtually non-present throughout the entire 2006 US tour. As a result of this, Greg retired from the band, and an announcement for this was made on November 30, 2006. The role of the Yellow Wiggle was handed to Greg's close-following understudy, Sam Moran.

In early 2012, Greg reapplied for his position within The Wiggles, and amidst plenty of controversies, returned full-time to his position. He began touring again in March that year.

Greg, however, along with Murray and Jeff, left the group in 2012, Greg, in particular, wanted to spend more time with his family and friends. He was replaced by Emma Watkins. Greg makes cameos in In Taking Off and The Wiggles' "Ready Steady Wiggle" TV Series, and in 2013, Greg landed a role in a children’s show called Butterscotch's Playground where Greg plays Himself/The Playground Ground Keeper. He even created and works as an executive producer in a Christian children’s show called “Two by 2”. Greg made a return stint with The Wiggles for their 2017 video of Go Santa Go, being reintroduced to younger audiences and any current generation fans as an older man and he has worked on a Team Rescue album called Stop and Think!.

**Marriage**

In 1996, Greg married Michelle Charlton and has a daughter Madison Page and a stepson Blaine Page. They separated in 2006 and divorced in 2008.

A year later he met another lady named Vanessa. They married on January 2, 2010, after having a baby girl named Lara Page in October 2009. In 2011, his second wife also had a son, Cameron Page.

**Illness and Retirement**

Greg had experienced health difficulties since December 2005, at age 33 when he underwent a double hernia operation and withdrew from his group's Wiggledancing! Live On Stage in the US on August 23 2006 after suffering repeated fainting spells, slurred speech, fatigue, and trembling. Although Greg was missing for virtually all of the late 2006 U.S. tour, audiences were informed of Greg's absence at concerts moments before the curtain went up. At first, Greg was told that he had seven years to live, but he was diagnosed with a non-life-threatening and difficult to diagnose chronic illness called orthostatic intolerance, which causes symptoms such as fatigue and loss of balance. Specialists believed that Greg had mild episodes of the illness going back twelve years, but symptoms worsened after his hernias. It was decided that Greg would step back from performing with The Wiggles to better manage his health. In the months following the announcement of Greg's retirement, he received an overwhelming outpouring of public support. He reported that it took his parents six months to answer to the mountains of emails.

**Cardiac Arrest**

On January 17, 2020, The Original Wiggles were doing a reunion show for the bushfires in Australia. Towards the end of the show, the group was ready to do their last song 'Get Ready To Wiggle' and once they finished they started to leave the stage. When Greg was leaving the stage reaching down to get his drink, he collapsed as he was walking. It was captured on camera and his gasp was heard through the speakers as he was still wearing his mic. Once the whole band had left, the people in the crowd started chanting 'Hot Potato, Hot Potato, Hot Potato!' since they had not played that song yet. Anthony and Murray came on stage and Murray told the crowd that Greg was not feeling well. While Greg was getting CPR, they closed the curtain for privacy. Then the band and Captain Feathersword played Hot Potato. The paramedics were using the defibrillator but in order to put it on him, they cut open his yellow skivvy, and he was rushed to the hospital. Once Anthony realized how bad Greg was doing, he had a panic attack, then the morning after, while he was explaining to Greg what happened, he had another panic attack, and during the second show, the crowd was chanting in support of Greg making Anthony break into tears and overcome by emotion as Murray and Jeff comforted him. The reason why Greg had a cardiac arrest was because a small amount of plaque broke free during the blood flow while he was dancing and it blocked his artery making his heart stop. On April 17th he posted a video on his YouTube channel and he said he didn't watch the entire show he only watched the very end where he collapsed because he wanted to know what happened

**Trivia**

* Greg has been writing songs since 1991.
* He held the record for being the youngest Wiggle to join, at 19 until 2021 when Tsehay Hawkins was officially announced as an official member at 16.
* On February 25, 1996, Greg and Michelle were married.
* Greg Page worked on his solo album from 1997 to 1998.
* Greg used to work at Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).
* Greg really loves the movie Toy Story.
* In 2011, Greg published his autography book called Now and Then: Greg Page.
* His favourite Wiggles song is The Monkey Dance.
* His favourite Wiggles videos are "Wake Up Jeff! and It's a Wiggly Wiggly World!"
* Greg was a member of The Manzillas.
* He has an edutainment series called Explore, Discover and Grow.
* As of April 15, 2020, Greg is now an ambassador for Safebeat in the US.
* Greg once owned the fourth largest Elvis memorabilia collection in the world. He donated the collection to a museum.
* Despite having been the original Yellow Wiggle, Greg's favourite colour is blue.
* In TV Series 1, Greg was the voice of the Talking Door despite not being mentioned in the credits. He was also the narrator of the Henry the Octopus segment.
* He and Jeff Fatt are the only band members to reprise their original roles in regular Wiggles media since their departure (not counting reunion concerts).
* In The Wiggles' early videos such as Wiggle Time! in 1993 and Wiggledance! and Wiggly, Wiggly Christmas from 1997, Greg wore a digital wristwatch and Greg still wears watches every now and then.
* He is the tallest of the original Wiggles and of all the members (6'4).
* When Greg returned to the group in 2012, he was only supposed to stay until August. However, upon Murray and Jeff leaving, he was asked to stay for the rest of the year.
* On August 22, 2006 during a Meet & Greet, before two schedule wiggle performances in Kingston Rhode Island, Greg fainted before either show was performed and was treated at a hospital for dehydration. So Sam had to quickly put on the yellow skivvy and fill in for him. And the next day, before another two Wiggle performances in Washington DC, Greg collapsed before both shows were performed and it was decided that he should return home to Australia. So Sam had to quickly put on the yellow skivvy and fill in for him again for the remainder of the tour. This happened during Wiggledancing! Live On Stage.
* In 2011 during the ARIA Awards, Greg came on stage with Sam, Murray, Jeff, Anthony and Captain Feathersword (Paul Paddick) to accept The Wiggles' ARIA Hall of Fame Award.
* He held the record for the youngest age to become a Wiggle (19 years old) up until Tsehay Hawkins joined the group (16 years old).
* From 2002-2006 he was the only Wiggle to wear a short-sleeved shirt on tour unless the tour was filmed for a video or TV Series
* He is the only one of the original four never to have created or played any of the four Wiggly Friends. (He did, however, play Puppet Captain).
* His favourite part from The Wiggles Movie is when The Wiggles take off in the Big Red Car and start accelerating.
* He is the only Wiggle to never appear in any Nursery Rhymes video.
* During The Original Wiggles Reunion Show For Bush Fire Relief, Greg collapsed on stage and fell into cardiac arrest before they did Hot Potato. He was resuscitated by a team including a nurse who is a fan of the Wiggles.
* Since 2016 He still occasionally performs with Anthony Field, Murray Cook and Jeff Fatt in reunion concerts.
* He has collapsed on stage three times. In 2003, 2006 and 2020.
* While he is known as the original yellow wiggle, his real world counterpart's favourite colour is blue.
* In addition to the above statement, he and Anthony had a race to the department store for the blue shirt when getting their coloured skivvies. "Haha, victory! I'm not sure if Pagey ever liked yellow." Anthony said in an interview.