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New Wiggles doco reveals stars thought Greg Page was 'dead' after shock collapse
"I remember the colour from his face going, and I thought he was dead."
When Greg Page suffered a heart attack during a reunion show with the original Wiggles in 2020, it was a huge shock to fans in the audience and his band members Anthony Field, Murray Cook and Jeff Fatt, as well as the many people working backstage.
Now, in the new documentary, Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles, which premiered at SXSW in Sydney on Wednesday and will be released on Prime Video on October 24, new details of the situation have been revealed.
The four original Wiggles and members of the greater Wiggles team have shared exactly what happened during that terrifying moment, saying they "thought [Greg] was dead".
Greg was famously forced to leave the group in 2006 after suffering from fatigue and blackouts that left him unable to perform, which was later confirmed to be orthostatic intolerance. He was able to make a return to the group in 2012, but he, Murray and Jeff later decided it was time to hang up their skivvies and retire later that same year.
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Anthony's nephew Luke Field recalls in the documentary how The Wiggles decided to reunite to raise money for the bushfires that were raging in Australia at the time.
The group put on two over-18 shows at the Castle Hill RSL, with Murray saying Greg felt like he could do the performance and obviously didn't know what was going to happen later that night.
"The night was going unbelievably," Anthony told the cameras. "Greg was on fire, the crowd were loving it."
"Greg was dancing around like he was still 20," Murray added.
Emma Watkins, who was the Yellow Wiggle at the time, was onstage with the boys as a dancer, shared, "Being there on stage, I could see Greg and he was signalling to me to come and stand in. It's almost like he knows something's about to happen."
As the concert ended, the band started to walk off the stage when Greg collapsed just at the edge of the stage.
"Greg came over to the side of the stage, and it was just behind me," Murray recalled. "He kind of fell down, he didn't look well, and I thought, 'Oh, he's just overdone it.'"
"He was lying on the ground, and his eyes started rolling back in his head, and my first thought was, he was having some sort of fit," the Red Wiggle added.
Video from the concert shows a distressed Anthony telling the crowd they would end the show there because "Greg's not feeling really well".
Murray thanked the crowd for attending the concert but was clearly worried for his friend.
The group then got the go-ahead from the crew to perform 'Hot Potato' without Greg while they continued to help him.
Luke shares that he had radioed a colleague who was first-aid trained, but by the time she got to him, "he'd stopped breathing".
"I remember the colour from his face going, and I thought he was dead," Luke added.
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As they recalled the shocking moment, Jeff, Anthony and Murray were overcome with emotion.
Murray teared up while speaking about the "distressing" moment, with Luke adding that Anthony began having "a panic attack" as people were working to help Greg.
"I was on the ground, it was as bad as it could be, really," Anthony said.
A nurse in the audience ended up saving Greg's life by using a defibrillator on him.
Greg shared that he woke up in hospital and was told he was "having a massive heart attack".
"And I remember at that time thinking, 'What do you mean having?' because even though they'd resuscitated me, I still had a blockage and my heart was under attack," Greg explained. "But after the procedure, the nurse that was there said, 'You're a very lucky man,' because only ten per cent of people survive what you've been through.'"
Greg gave the Wiggles his blessing to follow through and do the second show that was set to take place the following night, with the new Wiggles at the time filling in and wearing the yellow skivvy.
Murray teared up and shared that it was "very moving" to see the crowd that night, saying, "It was obviously incredibly harrowing for him and his family, but it was harrowing for us, his other family too."
Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles will be available to stream on Prime Video on October 24.
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