Australia’s biggest band The Wiggles were joined by country icons Felicity Urquhart and Josh Cunningham when they stopped by the South Tamworth Fire Station on Ringers Road as part of their work with Fortem Australia – the non-profit dedicated to offering support to first responders and their families.
The stop was part of their filming for a new video clip for a song by Kevin Bennett called “We See You”, the title track of an album that’s designed to raise both funds for and awareness of Australia’s first responders, with the Wiggles taking the time out to meet and greet local fans – both kids and adults – during their first ever appearance at the Tamworth Country Music Festival.
It was the brainchild of former Wiggles manager and brother of Blue Wiggle Anthony Paul Field, a Fortem Australia Ambassador, who called Tamworth a “great party town” when his band The Cockroaches used to tour here, back in the day.
“I did the Rewriggled album many years ago, where we get different artists to do songs about a particular topic. And I thought we should do the same, but sing about first responders,” Field said.
“Kevin Bennett wrote the theme song, and I basically briefed all the musos: ‘Can you either write a song about a first responder or an incident?’”
“So, he summed it up in three words: ‘we see you’. And there’s a line in his song, ‘your selflessness reveals you.’”
The album features Paul Field, Kevin Bennett, Dog Trumpet, The Wiggles, Luca Brasi, Little Quirks, John Schumann, Felicity Urquhart, Josh Cunningham, Elly-May Barnes, Shane Nicholson, and has, according to Field, been a massive success.
The wide variety of artists, Field said, from rock-and-roll royal Elly-May Barnes, country stars like Josh Cunningham and Felicity Urquhart to, yes, Australia’s biggest band The Wiggles, was meant to appeal to as many facets of Australia as possible.
“The songs are quite entertaining and some very upbeat, some quite serious, but that’s okay.”
For NSW Fire and Rescue Commissioner Jeremey Fewtrell, the album is a crucial chance to highlight the work first responders do.
“We forget sometimes that those emergency services are there at a moment’s notice to come and help anyone in the community who finds themselves in trouble,” Commissioner Fewtrell said.
Originally from Armidale but now based in Sydney, Commissioner Fewtrell made the journey back up to meet the Wiggles.
Fewtrell praised the album for helping raise awareness about what police officers, firies, and ambos go through.,
“This approach just highlights the fact that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all around Australia, there’s a whole heap of Emergency Services staff and volunteers who are ready to respond and protect those in our community.”
The Commissioner pointed out the timeliness of the album for firefighters as fires rage in the south, and as parts of the Hunter face power loss from the storms that rolled through a few days ago.
“Having that awareness and that appreciation does show support back to our emergency services personnel, and it makes a difference to our people as they deal with the fallout from those terrible incidents.”
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