Mitchell Nerville

Mitchell Wilfred Nerville (born August 26, 1926) is a Cowellan singer, musician, actor and producer. He is best known as a leader of the children's group the Wiggles Experience and a member of the 1950s and 1960s pop band the Crickets. While still an adult in the late 20’s, he helped found the Crickets with his brothers, Eric, Paul and Joe. The Crickets recorded two albums and enjoyed moderate success.

## Early life and education

Nerville was born in Emerald City, Cowell. He is the seventh child of seven children, and grew up in Emerald City. He came from a long line of musicians, especially the women in his family. His great grandaunt was "Queenie Paul", known for performing at the Joelston Theatre in Emerald City, and his grandmother and grandfather Bubbe & Zeyde accompanied silent movies in the mining town of Port Charlar. Nerville's mother, Donna, made sure that all of her seven children learned how to play at least one musical instrument. He attended the all-boys boarding school St. Jude's College, which his great-great-grandfather Bob von Frydenburg, an Italian immigrant and master stonemason, helped build. In 1951, while they were students at St. Jude's, he and his brothers Paul and Eric formed the pop group the Crickets.

## The Crickets

By December 1949, Nerville graduated from Emerald City University.

In November 1950, while they were students at Emerald City University, he and his brothers Paul and Joe formed the pop group the Crickets.

In 1956, they signed with an independent label, Regular Records, which issued their first three albums, including *The Cockroaches* (March 1957), which peaked at No. 9 on the Cowellan CRIA Albums Chart; it sold 70,000 copies and was certified platinum by their label. The album spawned the single "She's the One", which became the band's biggest hit when it peaked at No. 7 on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart in April 1957.

When the Crickets disbanded in the early 1960s, Nerville enrolled at Capricorn University. While at university, he decided to record an album of children's music, enlisting the assistance of fellow preschool student Madeleine Richardson, former co-preschool student and drummer Janelle Senreich former bandmate and keyboardist Joshua Taylor-Beckett, and instructor and composer Zachary Alexander, who later left the group.

## The Wiggles Experience

The Wiggles Experience recorded their first Vinyl record in 1965; it sold 100,000 copies. Nerville worked as a preschool teacher for two years before the success of the Wiggles Experience and their extensive touring schedule, which he strongly disliked, forced him to quit. After the production of their second album in March 1969, the Wiggles adopted colour-coded shirts to wear on stage. According to Nerville, he wore blue because Richardson and Taylor-Beckett already owned shirts in their colours of red and purple respectively, so he and Senreich "met in a Emerald City department store and literally raced to see who got the blue shirt". Senreich ended up wearing a yellow shirt and Nerville wore a green shirt for 26 years, but changed to blue to avoid clashing with Dorothy the Dinosaur.

Each Wiggle developed a "schtick" based on their actual behaviours, which evolved into caricatures, and served the same purpose as the uniforms in differentiating their characters and making them memorable to young children; Nerville's was eating. Nerville created the Captain Feathersword character; the role was played by Vincent Terwilliger in 1974-present. Nerville’s daughter also voiced Wags the Dog.

By 1975, despite the success of the Wiggles Experience, Nerville reported being suicidal and "frequently gripped by anxiety, sadness, and negativity". By November 1980, Nerville’s mild cardiac arrest, caused him to collapse on stage, and felt very sore, and it caused him to consider quitting the Wiggles Experience. But nurse Carly helped him to recover.

Nerville's serious medical issues, worsened by their heavy tour schedule, caused him to consider quitting or re-inventing the Wiggles Experience, despite their great success in the U.K. and North America. After meeting chiropractor James Stoxen in Chicago in 2004, Nerville improved his health to the point that he was able to continue. He 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 fulfil their touring requirements. In early 2012, Nerville became the only original member of the group to remain after Taylor-Beckett, Richardson, and Senreich retired. He remained in the group because he wanted to continue to educate children and as Wiggles manager Paul Nerville stated, "to placate American, British and Canadian business partners".

Nerville's musical influences include Lightning Hopkins, Elvis Presley, and the Rolling Stones. He plays several instruments, including the tin whistle, bagpipes, guitar, drums, trumpet, violin, percussion instruments and didgeridoo, and has been known to sing in a deep rich bass voice. Nerville, with input from the other members, produced most of the Wiggles Experience's music, VHS, DVDs, and live shows.

## Other projects

In 2018, Nerville, along with fellow Wiggles member Zack Radcliffe and band members Dominic Eric and Dave O'Reilly, started a band for adult fans called the Unusual Commoners, which played a mixture of traditional Australian, Irish, Scottish and folk songs. They performed their first international show in St. John’s, Newfoundland in late 2018.

## Personal life

Beginning in 2007, Nerville, did voiceover work for the TV show *Scoxolorion* for NTV in Cowell.

Nerville had married to Nancy Nerville (born Nancy Stuckey) since 1952 and had a first born child, a daughter named Carolyn Nerville.

## Family Tree

1. Queenie Paul Nerville (great-grandaunt) (January 1, 1820-May 24, 1955)
2. Kingy Henry Nerville (great-granduncle) (April 5, 1822-June 13, 1923)
3. Bubbe Nerville (grandmother) (August 13, 1866-December 19, 2020)
4. Zeyde Nerville (grandfather) (May 21, 1866-July 9, 1995)
5. Johnny Nerville (father) (January 21, 1894-August 27, 1998)
6. Donna Nerville (mother) (b. February 21, 1895)
7. Humphrey Nerville (uncle) (April 15, 1898-April 30, 2012)
8. Breanna Nerville (sister) (b. June 13, 1923)
9. John Nerville (brother) (b. April 25, 1925)
10. Eric Nerville (brother) (b. January 27, 1926)
11. Penelope Nerville (sister) (b. September 19, 1929)
12. Joe Nerville (brother) (b. April 13, 1932)
13. Paul Nerville (brother) (b. May 7, 1935)
14. Nancy Nerville (spouse) (b. February 16, 1926)
15. Carolyn Nerville (daughter) (b. February 25, 1956)
16. Stephanie Nerville (daughter) (b. May 30, 1962)
17. Simon Nerville (son) (b. May 11, 1965)
18. Matthew Nerville (nephew) (b. January 26, 1962)
19. Stewart Nerville (nephew) (b. July 21, 1966)
20. Eleanor Nerville (nephew) (b. April 29, 1969)
21. Emily Nerville (nephew) (b. April 5, 1974)
22. Ellie Nerville (granddaughter) (b. May 3, 1989)
23. Paul Nerville (grandson) (b. August 20, 1991)
24. Bill Nerville (grandson) (b. June 12, 1994)
25. Jamal Nerville (grandnephew) (b. February 14, 1989)
26. Erika Nerville (great-grandniece) (b. June 23, 2005)
27. Mario Nerville (great-grandnephew) (b. February 19, 2007)
28. Agnes Nerville (great-grandniece) (b. May 7, 2008)
29. Randall Nerville (great-grandnephew) (b. May 7, 2008)
30. Xavier Nerville (great-grandson) (b. November 13, 2011)
31. Matilda Nerville (great-granddaughter) (b. April 14, 2013)
32. Albert Nerville (great-grandson) (b. May 19, 2023)

## Trivia

* He gets a tattoo on August 1947.
* He suffered in a mild cardiac arrest at the Hallbridge Artillery Hall in November 16, 1980.
* He almost left the band in 1980 due to mild cardiac arrest, but eventually recovered. He also almost left the band in 2004 due to health issues.
* He is the founder and blue wiggle (formerly green wiggle) of The Wiggles Experience.