Old Wiggle says band not good for kids

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MELBOURNE, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- A former member of Australia's superstar band Wiggles says his former mates provide kids with musical nourishment equal to "a plate of chips."

The Wiggles are Australia's highest paid performers, reeling in $45 million a year via record sales, TV shows, concerts and other child-related ventures, the Melbourne Herald Sun reports.

Phillip Wilcher, known as "the Pete Best of the Wiggles" because, like the Beatles drummer, he was fired right before the group hit it big, said he would never rejoin his old mates.

"Seeing what they are doing now, I could never do that and believe in it," he said. "I wouldn't feel comfortable earning a lot of money from it. It's like giving a child a plate of chips and thinking they will get nourishment from it."

Wilcher, 47, said he was dumped 14 years ago after the band secretly recorded its second album without him. He said he plans to soon sell his Wiggles memorabilia, including the shirt he wore on the first Wiggles album, handwritten lyrics and early tape recordings.