About Peter

Peter Combe has been making children (and their parents) sing, dance, laugh and occasionally shout “EW!” for more than four decades.

A former primary school and music teacher, Peter began writing songs for his students before jetting off to England to present the BBC's Music Time. In 1980 Peter returned home to host ABC radio's Let's Have Music and then went on to create the music that would become the soundtrack to countless Australian childhoods.

With songs like ‘Spaghetti Bolognaise’, ‘Mr Clicketty Cane’, ‘Newspaper Mama’,’Toffee Apple’ and ‘Juicy Juicy Green Grass’, Peter turned the everyday stuff of childhood into seriously catchy songs. Along the way he collected three ARIA Awards, gold and platinum records, sold out the Sydney Opera House twice and even had his ABC radio program Ticklepot named the best children’s radio program in the world.

Peter’s philosophy has always been that children deserve great music too. That it could be funny, sometimes serious, clever, properly produced and musical enough that grown-ups can survive listening to it on repeat in the car.

These days, the kids who once sang along in their pyjamas turn up to his pub gigs as grown-ups, singing louder than ever. Peter is still writing and recording, most recently A Frog in My Cheese Sandwich (2024), and lives in Adelaide with his wife Carol, surrounded by a musical family of four kids and seven grandkids.

Career Timeline

1973

  • In winning New Faces, Peter sang Don McClean’s song ‘Vincent’. The prize was a trip to Surfers Paradise (by bus!) to stay for 7 days.

    On the morning after Peter, Carol and baby Joni arrived, while wandering around outside, who should he see being interviewed by ABC Radio, sitting on the lawn outside the motel? None other than Don McClean!

1975

1977

  • Peter and Carol with daughters Joni and Alice made the big shift from Adelaide to Sydney looking to further Peter’s adult song writing career. During this time he sang at Sydney Clubs, restaurants, folk clubs and Dirty Dicks where he donned pantaloons and sang bawdy Elizabethan ballads. He was also the understudy for one of the lead parts in the rock opera Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and performed the role about 6 times.

  • Keith Potger from The Seekers delivered the single of Vagabond to Peter who was living at Ivy Cottage, Dorney, Buckinghamshire.

1977 - 1980

  • "Someone 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."

    The programme, aimed at primary school children, taught singing, instrumentation, and basic elements of music theory with performances of simple, easily understandable songs. Peter co-hosted the show with Kathryn Harries and a Music Time album was recorded in London in 1980.

1980

  • Including the title track, which had previously been a hit for the Iconic Australian Folk Pop group The Seekers.

    “Recorded at Axent Recording Studio in Kogarah, engineered by Ross McGregor, who is visually impaired. I stayed in a tiny room next to the studio and every morning was woken by an alarm clock which said ‘Wake Up! Get up, immediately!’ Ross and I have remained good friends.”

1980-1984

  • Peter presented this along with Irene Petrie on ABC Radio in Adelaide. It was a bit like Music Time for radio, with Peter and Irene teaching songs to primary aged kids. All over Australia children, with a Let’s have Music songbook in front of them,  would tune in to Let’s Have Music on a speaker in their classroom.

1981

  • Peter duplicated 100’s of cassettes of the songs. A cottage industry! The album sold because of word of mouth.

    Recording new songs for kids was a new idea. Almost no one was doing it.

    Track 1 was ‘Spaghetti Bolognaise’, with the idea for the song coming from when Peter saw two boys playing marbles in the school yard at Scotch College in 1980  in Adelaide.

1984

  • Originally titled ‘More Songs for Little Kids’, Peter’s second album for children was released on cassette and LP by the ABC and it was decided the album title should be changed to ‘Spaghetti Bolognaise’.

    Continuing to be popular with kids for years to come, by 1993 it went Platinum in Australia.

1987

  • Peter composed the songs for the Toffee Apple album while in England for nine months.

    The ABC promoted the album with a videoclip, the first ever music video for a children’s song.

    Toffee Apple won the first ever ARIA for Best Children’s Album before eventually going Platinum.

1988

Peter performs two sold-out shows at the Sydney Opera House

1989

1988

  • In 1988 Peter wrote and released ‘Newspaper Mama’. The album was so popular, it was certified gold by June 1989.

    The album also took out ‘Best Children’s Album’ at the 1989 ARIA Awards, which would have been exciting enough, but later that night Peter met the fifth Beatle, George Martin.

    “The key note speaker was George Martin, the Beatles producer. Kylie (Minogue) was the flavour of the month at that time, she had become huge and all the journalists crowded around her and George Martin who produced 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road', was left standing by himself.

    So I got to have a long conversation with George Martin. I felt so deeply honoured. He's was a delightful man and incredibly knowledgeable."

  • Peter presented this on ABC Radio together with Henry Salter as ‘Monkey’ and it ran from 1989 - 1991.

    Each episode was based on one of Peter’s songs. It was awarded the Gold Medal for Best Children’s Radio Program in the World in a competition in New York 1989.

1989

  • Chopsticks was the sixth studio album by Peter, released in 1989 through ABC. It received an ARIA nomination for 'Best Australian Children's Record' and by August of 1991 it had gone Gold.

1989

  • The epic music video for ‘Chopsticks’ was filmed in multiple locations in Sydney including the iconic Sydney Opera House.

    The film clip was also special to Peter as it included two of his children - Thom and Emily.

    The song is about children learning musical instruments and so young Suzuki violinists, pianists and flautists were featured in the clip. Peter is a big fan of the Suzuki method of teaching instruments to children.

1990

  • Peter wanted to give children a beautiful and sophisticated, (but still fun) album of songs to sing during the festive season and so the first of Peter’s Christmas Albums was born.

    Released in November 1990 it peaked at number 49 on the ARIA Charts, becoming Combe's highest charting album and by December it had gone certified Gold.

1991

  • This was Peter’s first live album, recorded in 1990 in front of an audience in the Adelaide ABC studios. Released in April 1991, by the end of the year of went gold. It also won the ARIA for ‘Best Children’s Album’ the following year (and the third time for Peter!).

1992

  • In 1992 Peter embarked on a massive project; to adapt May Gibb's classic story 'Snugglepot and Cuddlepie' into a full length musical.

    It had it’s first performance in Elder Park in 1992 in front of 20,000 people. Produced by the Adelaide Festival of Arts, it was a concert version with the Adelaide Festival Chorus, the Adelaide Girls Choir and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

    A later production in the Festival Theatre in 1993 featured Ruth Cracknell as May Gibbs, along with artists including Keith Conlon, Catherine Lambert and Eric Bogle.

1993

  • Peter recorded and released the album Spook and the accompanying video clip. Special guests on the album included the Australian String Quartet (on Mr Spook and Jacaranda Tree).

    The video clip was filmed at the iconic Carclew mansion in North Adelaide on a sweltering hot day when the mercury hit the 40s!

1996

  • Little Groover was released in 1996 and nominated for an ARIA for Best Children’s Album. The accompanying music video for the title track features Peter's daughter Joni as she tried to teach Peter to dance, with mixed results!

1998

‘Honey’ and ‘Thingth I Thay’ are nominated for an APRA Award, for Most Performed Children's Work

1995 - 2000

Joni Combe, Peter’s Daughter, follows in his footsteps and hosts the popular children’s TV show Humphrey Bear

2002

  • Songs from a Telephone Box was Peter's first adult album in 20 years and included many tracks close to his heart including a powerful anthem of reconciliation and a beautiful tribute to the memory of his father.

  • The 3 Classic Fairy Tales albums combines Peter's classic fairy tales songs with him reading each story.

1999

2003 - 2006

  • Recorded in 1999, Best Friends was released through Rascal Records. The cover features two of Peter's daughters; (from left to right) Alice and Joni.

2005 - 2010

  • During this period Peter performed over 100 Big Kids Night Out 18 + shows all over Australia to young adults who grew up on his songs, the highlight being a sold out show at The Corner in Melbourne

  • Wake Up It’s Christmas was released in 2005, 15 years after Peter’s first Christmas album, and featured 13 new songs celebrating the festive season with a distinct Australiana flavour.

    It was also the first children's record to be voted ABC Radio National's Album of the Week.

2005

2009

  • In 2009, Peter released his first album of new kids songs (well non Christmassy ones) in ten years. This album, Kiddywinks, is particularly suited to pre-school kids, Peter calls it his 'Play School album.

2012

  • Showcasing Peter’s delightfully eccentric vocals, Quirky Berserky (The Turkey From Turkey) included the superb Quirky Berserky Band, a bluegrass group, the exquisite sounds of the Zephyr String Quartet and the debut of Peter's grandson Oli (possibly the best 3 year old singer in Australia!). The record also includes performances from children’s choirs Young Adelaide Voices, the Glee Club and a cameo by ARIA winning jazz vocalists The Idea of North.

2014

  • Established in 2009, the SA Music Hall of Fame honours South Australia’s music legacy, its artists, venues and cultural history.

    Peter was inducted for his contribution to children’s music in a ceremony on November 21, 2014.

2017

  • Peter's 15th record Live It Up! was launched with a national tour and earned an ARIA nomination for Best Children's Album.

2018

  • Peter decides to hit the road and do a national tour of his iconic festive record from 1990 - Peter Combe’s Christmas Album. Local high school and children’s choirs were invited to join Peter on stage in each state, to elevate these special songs.

2020

2023

Right Now

  • Peter was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia, in the 2020 Australia Day Honours List a for “service to the performing arts, particularly music for children.”

2022

  • Peter (and his extensive catalogue) are signed to a distribution deal with Universal Music Australia.

  • This ARIA-Nominated album was a harmonious fusion of brand new tracks and previously recorded songs, celebrating the beauty and wonder of planet earth – the third planet from the Sun, and its place in our galaxy, the Milky Way. A cosmic musical quest!

2024

  • 40 years after Spaghetti Bolognaise was released by the ABC, Peter wrote and recorded A Frog in My Cheese Sandwich. An album that featured songs for a diverse age range of kids including 'They Got It Right Vegemite' - the story of the competition where Vegemite got its iconic name (The winner received a prize of 50 pounds!).

Probably having a cup of tea and writing another tune 🎵