Murray Cook
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Murray Cook AM |
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|---|---|
Murray Cook of The Wiggles, 2007.
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Murray James Cook |
| Born |
30 June 1960 Cowra, New South Wales, Australia |
| Genres | |
| Instruments | Guitar, bass guitar, Ukulele, vocals |
| Years active | 1985-2012 |
| Associated acts |
The Wiggles Bang Shang a Lang |
| Notable instruments | |
| Maton Mastersound 500 | |
Murray James Cook, AM (born 30 June 1960) is an Australian vocalist, songwriter, musician, guitarist and actor. He is best known as one of the founding members of the children's band The Wiggles. Cook was also a regular guest on the Australian TV show Spicks and Specks, with his good friend, host Adam Hills.
Cook played the guitar in the late 1980s bands The Transistors and Finger Guns before joining the Sydney-based band Bang Shang a Lang. (He continued to play for Bang Shang a Lang in Sydney, when not on tour with The Wiggles.)
When things did not work out in the music field for Cook, he returned to university and studied early childhood education at Macquarie University, where he met Anthony Field and Greg Page and formed The Wiggles in 1991. Cook worked as a preschool teacher for two years before the success of The Wiggles forced him to quit. According to Field, Cook would have been content to "continue teaching and perhaps move into an academic role in the field. He knows his stuff and is simply great with children".
Cook's shtick in The Wiggles was an obsession with playing the guitar. He was conscious that he was probably the first guitarist children would see, and said, "I always think that if it inspires kids to play guitar later on that would be great. I think it would be really nice if in 15 years I read that somebody got into guitar playing because of the Wiggles. I know that would be fantastic." When asked what his favorite Wiggles song was, he stated, "'Play your guitar with Murray,' of course. When we play that song live I get to play like a rock 'n roll star." Guitar Magazine speculated that since Cook was one of the first guitarists children were exposed to, he may be the most influential guitarist in the world.
Cook's major musical influences are The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Eric Clapton. In 2008, Cook was named "the sixth best guitarist in Australia". Cook owns a collection of thirty vintage guitars. Onstage, he uses the Australian made Maton Mastersound 500 guitar. He also plays a '53 Gibson Les Paul gold top, '64 Fender Strat, James Burton Fender Telecaster, Maton Mastersound 500 and a more recent Les Paul at home or in the studio. The amplifiers he uses are the Marshall Head and Box Combo, the Fender Twin and a Bad Cat, which he bought while in the U.S. and said had a "great sound."
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