Peter Combe

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. ==Career==

Early career 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. 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. After two more years teaching, Combe issued his second album, Songs for Little Kids. 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." In 1986, he returned to England for an eight-month stay – he wrote material for his next album, Toffee Apple (June 1987). At the ARIA Music Awards of 1988 Combe won the inaugural ARIA Award for Best Children's Album category for Toffee Apple. In 1989, he won his second ARIA for Best Children's Album, for Newspaper Mama (1988). His next album, Chopsticks (September 1989), was also nominated in that category in the following year but it did not win. His first live album, The Absolutely Very Best of Peter Combe (So Far) Recorded in Concert (1991), won his third trophy for Best Children's Album, in 1992. A clip of the live performance at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne is available showing a crowd of young adults singing along to lyrics such as "Wash Your Face in Orange Juice", and "Belly Flop on a Pizza? Ewww!". Live It Up, was released on 6 April 2017. Combe toured the album across Australia In 2018, Combe performed his 1990 ''Peter Combe's Christmas Album'' in full across the country in a national tour. ==Personal life==

Combe resides in Adelaide, South Australia and spends time at his holiday house in Carrickalinga. Combe and his wife Carol have four children - a son and three daughters - who have all performed with him over the years: Joni, Alice, Emily and Thomas 'Thom'; and seven grandchildren. Growing up, Combe's father would wake him up at 6am to play tennis and he admits he's quite a good player. Combe's favourite artists are Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary and The Springfields. ==Discography==

Studio albums Live albums Compilation albums Box sets ==Awards and nominations==

APRA Music Awards The APRA Awards are held in Australia and New Zealand by the Australasian Performing Right Association to recognise songwriting skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually. ARIA Music Awards The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. ==References==