Peter Charles Combe OAM (; born 20 October 1948) is an Australian children's entertainer and musician. At the ARIA Music Awards he has won three ARIA Awards for Best Children's Album, for Toffee Apple (1988), Newspaper Mama (1989) and The Absolutely Very Best of Peter Combe (So Far) Recorded in Concert (1992) and three additional nominations (Chopsticks (1990), Little Groover (1996) and Live It Up (2017)). His best-known tracks are "Toffee Apple", "Spaghetti Bolognaise", "Mr Clicketty Cane", "Juicy Juicy Green Grass" and "Newspaper Mama". His Christmas Album (November 1990) reached the ARIA Albums Chart top 50.
Biography
1948–1979: Early life
Peter Charles Combe was born in Adelaide on 20 October 1948 to Merle (née Holman) and Bern Combe, the third of four children. His early influences from the 1950s were the Springfields; he learned to harmonise from an early age. He was inspired by folk singers of the 1960s, including Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon & Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan. He formed a folk group and taught himself guitar. Later he became fascinated by the Beatles and Billy Joel.
By 1969, Combe was a primary school teacher and in the early 1970s, he was a specialist music teacher. He taught junior school music at Prince Alfred College in the late 1970s. He started writing songs for his students and in 1973 he wrote his first "operettas" for them. One of the early ones, Bows Against the Barons, is based on Geoffrey Trease's novel of the same name, relating the legend of Robin Hood. The song, "Robin Hood's Dream", appeared on his 1988 album, Newspaper Mama.
In 1975, Combe moved to Sydney and aspired to be the next Paul Simon. There he appeared in the rock musical, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club. He taught at inner Sydney primary schools, performed in pubs and clubs as a singer-songwriter. He wrote a children's musical, Frederick WhatsHisName & his TwoLegged Six String Guitar, which provided the track, "Spangle Road". Another of his musicals is based on Norman Lindsay's book, The Magic Pudding.
In 1977, Combe migrated to England where he became a presenter on Music Time, a BBC Television educational program. He explained that "Someone in Adelaide had given me the name of a BBC producer. I rang and said I had just arrived [in England] and do you have any shows I can audition for. They wanted someone for Music Time, I auditioned, made the short list and got the job." Combe and co-presenter, Kathryn Harries, introduced musical concepts in an entertaining format. The show was used by teachers as part of their music programs and was a resource for other music educators. Besides being played in Britain for six years, it was re-broadcast on ABC TV. In late 1979, the Combe family moved back to Australia, where he presented Let's Have Music, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio program, which was used for primary school music education.
1980–1992: Commercial success
In 1980 he recorded his first album, Vagabond, which was aimed at adults. The title track had been recorded by ex-pat Australians, the Seekers, in 1977. After two more years teaching, Combe issued his second album, Songs for Little Kids. It was recorded and produced by Combe at Axent Recording Studio in Sydney and appeared on ABC Records on cassette.
At that time, children's albums comprised nursery rhymes, which were sung and played in a simple traditional style. Combe recalled, "record companies used to think anyone could write songs for children, anything was good enough. You would get whole albums where the only accompaniment was acoustic guitar." Combe introduced new concepts in children's songs, writing to appeal to children and their parents: they were funny and relevant. He arranged them with contemporary instrumentation, using his Music Time experience to introduce children to different musical concepts, genres and instruments. Combe started performing concerts in schools – about 200 school shows a year over three years. His next cassette, Spaghetti Bolognaise and More Songs for Little Kids (1985), was soon renamed as Spaghetti Bolognaise after its lead track.