*photo's by Chris Canole The WIGGIN'S Report. Written: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 This has been a very difficult post for me to write, after all, I saw Graham Wiggins aka Dr. Didj on Sunday and what is it now (not so great with time anymore... Thursday is it?) anyway. I am so conflicted by what I experienced that I am afraid to write about it. I am concerned the subtly of what I experienced will be lost in the words I choose, and really, meeting Graham Wiggins was for me, important. Liked his performance in the Mid-afternoon at the street scene. Made me dance, and reel about. I know I have said this before, but I'll say it again, there is just so much joy in the sounds he makes. He would set a riff into motion with his electronic gizmos and then play a little key board and then a little hand-held air-powered piano (damn, I can't remember what that is called for the life of me!) and then back to the didj. Meanwhile, his ever so bored looking and let's face it BORING guitar player stood in place doing nothing but detract from the whole scene and the drummer diligently kept up with the Dr.'s pace. It was kind of like a freak show, where Dr. Didj as the mad scientist frankensteined the music together while his assistants looked on. (Graham's didjeridu is a bit of a Frankenstein, bandaged up and "bondo'ed" together).
And still, despite all this madness, the music was HAPPY. 5 that evening Graham put on what he called a didj workshop where he would be "explaining a little about the didjeridu as well as this technology he is using to take it further" Of course I had to attend, I mean this is one of my biggest didjeridu influences, even if I am a little uncertain about this new direction he is taking. That Graham Wiggins is a lot shorter than I thought. And quiet, and a little nervous, but definitely believes in what he's doing. He played a little solo for the group, it was interesting. He talked about his experiences in the outback. He talked about electronics, and demonstrated them, demonstrated them demonstrated them and hey, its interesting what he's doing, which is essentially making all other musicians save himself obsolete. and after watching the show I'd say that here's nearly there.
	Randy leaned over to me and said, "do you think he knows just how important 'Outback' is?" I had to know the answer to that question, because what he is doing now seemed such the antithesis of what he WAS doing. So we hung around after what boiled down to a lecture to find out. He was very nice, and willing to chat and I was afraid to bring up Outback because it seemed so plain to me that what he was doing now was somehow about running away from that. But he was willing to talk to me about it. We discussed for a bit the musical significance of Outback to the didjeridu. And then moved on to the core of it. He said, "Outback was one of the most difficult times for me, because the truth is we hated each other, it was absolutely horrible, and I just kept hanging on, because it was so good (the music) waiting for the big deal to come along, and we kept waiting and it just got worse and worse" He said, "I am amazed every time I hear that music, I think to myself how can it be so full of joy when everything going on at that time was not." He said, "I only hope that the stuff I am doing now can make as significant an impact as Outback did." And I looked over at his didjeridu, all bandaged and frankensteined up and I think to myself, wow. That must be one hell of a pipe. Graham Wiggins is still one of my didjeridu heroes. Now for different reasons. Mostly because now I know him as a person, a very nice person just like me. Whose life has been completely altered because he blew down inside a hollow stick, that takes life's woes and somehow Turns them into joy.