Australia's Original King of the Kids.
Peter Combe is a multi award winning icon of Australian children's music and recognised as simply the best and most loved children's songwriter in Australia, capturing the imagination of both young and old with his funny, inspirational and irresistably catchy songs for children. In fact Peter pioneered the whole idea of adult friendly kids' songs - music you could play for the kids in the car on long trips and not go completely insane after hearing the same songs 20 times!
2013 was Peter Combe's 30th year as a professional creator of children's music.
He now has 3 generations of audiences and is currently experiencing a major career resurgence with audiences consisting of young children plus their parents who grew up on his songs in the late 80's and early 90's and grandparents who first discovered the music for their children! Like a good recipe or a favourite story, his music is being passed down to today's children. And with over a million album and DVD sales to date, Peter’s passion for performing, writing and recording quality new music for children is as strong as ever.
Peter's song Wash Your Face in Orange Juice, (Mr Clicketty Cane), is known by almost every child in every school in Australia, and his songs are used by more teachers in Australian schools than any other artist or writer. And his songs have infiltrated other countries all over the world.
2012 saw the release of his 13th album, Quirky Berserky the Turkey from Turkey, with 22 new Peter Combe songs. His well known Monty Pythonish humour is evident on the new CD in songs such as Never No Never No Never. As always he's introduced different styles of music with contributions from other artists of excellence. Apart from Peter's sometimes beautiful and other times quirky vocals, there's the sublime talents of the wonderful acapella quartet The Idea of North and the Zephyr String Quartet (Not Zee 1, 2 & 3), Bluegrass Junction, the gorgeous sounds of the Theatre Bugs Glee Club kids and Young Adelaide Voices, Peter's superb band and… the debut of Peter's 3 year old grandson Oli on Red Says Stop. As always the album is wonderfully diverse with every track a musical surprise.
As well as music shows for kids, he also performs to adoring crowds of '20 somethings' who grew up on his music, at 'Retro' shows in pubs, festivals or universities. The biggest of these was the Falls Rock Festival in 2011 with an audience of over 3000. These shows feature all his ‘hits’ including Wash Your Face in Orange Juice, (Mr Clicketty Cane), Newspaper Mama, Toffee Apple, Spaghetti Bolognaise, Chopsticks and Juicy Juicy Green Grass – by the end of the show most of the crowd are up on the floor dancing and singing every word of every song! During one memorable performance, a young man, acting out a famous line from Wash Your Face in Orange Juice, actually bellyflopped into a pizza!!
To learn more about Peter's career check out his biography.
Peter has a YouTube channel playing many of his video clips, and a DVD pack containing a complete collection of all his videos - over 6 hours' worth. As well as the classic originals - "Toffee Apple", "Newspaper Mama", "Chopsticks" and "Happy Christmas to You", there are later concert videos and short clips, and a documentary about the making of a videoclip - "Mr Spook", and some interviews.
Peter Combe's children's music on CD and DVD is available here, through www.facebook.com/petercombe and retailers including JB Hi-Fi, Dillons Music in Norwood SA, Windmill Educational Shops (Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart and Launceston) and ABC Shops. Distribution is by Planet/MGM. All songs and albums are available world wide via iTunes.
Peter's facebook page is very popular and interactive.
On this website you can search for songs under particular topics (see MUSIC / songs) and there are many songs linked to downloadable sheet music PDFs.
