The Wiggles former manager Paul Field launches new kids music brand Peachy Keen

The Wiggles have some new competition in children’s entertainment and it’s coming from one of their own.

Exclusive: The skivvies are off as The Wiggles longtime manager Paul Field goes up against the children music giant helmed by his brother Anthony with new project Peachy Keen.

The respected music man is back in the challenge for the lucrative pre-school music dollar, two years after retiring from his managing director role with the Wiggles, co-founded in 1991 by original Blue Skivvy brother Anthony.

Field’s unrivalled 24-years experience steering the Wiggles to global success as a concert, television and recording juggernaut prompted British artist services and distribution platform Platoon to coax him to launch his own children’s entertainment brand.

The first Peachy Keen album called Animal Songs is out this week. Field and Platoon want to establish the “quality” music brand quickly and will release two more records, Lullabies and Nursery Rhymes, in June and July.

Paul Field is back with a new childhood music project called Peachy Keen.

The chief songwriter for the project is Paul and Anthony’s brother John Field, who also co-wrote many songs for The Wiggles including Hot Potato and Wags The Dog.

Field downplayed Peachy Keen entering into competition with The Wiggles as the group enjoys a wildly successful new chapter, stressing his project was a “brand not a band.”

“Anthony used to say it himself for years that if there was any other group that comes along, and there’s been many over the 31 years The Wiggles have been going, it’s good for the business because parents want quality,” he said.

“These three albums are the beginning of the beginning; we want Peachy Keen to be known as the go-to place for quality music that’s engages children.”

(from left) Jeff Fatt, Tony Henry, Anthony Field, John Field, Paul Field and Murray Cook.

Field retired from his managing director role – after more than 24 years of booking their gigs, directing videos and television episodes and even donning the Dorothy The Dinosaur suit in the Wiggles’ early days – as his wife Pauline called time on her career in education.

The shock death of the Fields’ beloved oldest sister Maria not long after she was diagnosed with cancer, coming at a time he felt he had accomplished all he could with The Wiggles, was a “tap on the shoulder to say things can change so quickly.”

“There had been a lot of changes at The Wiggles, and I could have been there forever, but I felt I’d kicked all the goals and they were all safely in a new era,” Field said.

“I really didn’t know what I wanted to do but I decided I wanted to make it more personal.”

The former frontman of 80s Australian rockers The Cockroaches finally recorded his debut solo album last year, making Love Songs For Lonely People “after Jimmy Barnes gave me a kick up the arse.”

Paul Field at home with his grandchildren Felix, four months and Raphaela, 1.

And then Peachy Keen swung into gear at the beginning of 2022.

While Peachy Keen is yet to have a public face or characters, there are future plans to create animated videos.

Among the high calibre artists contributing to the records are award-winning singer songwriter Shane Nicholson and jazz star Emma Pask.

Field, who is an obsessed music fan, said the vintage 60s and 70s-style melodies on songs like Ten Puppies So Cute, Kangaroo, Kangaroo and Make Like A Monkey, resonate with both children and adults; he’s had his own test group when babysitting his grandchildren, four-month-old Felix and one-year-old Raphaela.

“The children’s audience is the most honest; they dig it or they don’t and those melodies we grew up with, that are in our DNA, really engage children,” he said.

“We want our music to stand out from the pack.”

Click here to hear first single Peachy Keen.

Peachy Keen’s debut album Animal Songs is out on May 13.

Originally published as The Wiggles former manager Paul Field launches new kids music brand Peachy Keen