Peter Combe - Doin' it for the Kids
» Peter Combe - Zoo, The, QLD - June 21, 2008
In a world where children have to be told that they’re favourite pop star has had naughty photos of themselves plastered all over MySpace and as such been dropped by their label, you wonder if songs like Newspaper Mama can still resonate with kids? 3 time Aria award winner Peter Combe has all kinds of musical influences including Simon and Garfunkel and Bob Dylan, and comedic influences ranging from John Cleese to John Clarke and has created his own brand of simple, cheeky kids songs for over 25 years now. But how does a children’s entertainer compete against the might of The Wiggles, in a time when kids become consumers sooner than they are potty trained?
“Wash Your Face with Orange Juice is indisputably for modern day kids at school now, my number one hit. It’s my Stairway or American Pie.” He would know. He still performs up to 40 shows a year at primary schools, “I can walk into any primary school in the country and I know that a minimum 50% will know that particular song.” Amazing, considering he hasn’t been on ABC TV since I was 5 years old! He’s about to release a live CD/DVD called “Peter Combe with The Juicy Juicy Green Grass Band - Live at Jive” after the popularity of the song.
But it’s not the 20 year olds Peter is worried about. They’ve had a childhood before mass media told little Timmy that being 10 is the new 5. “...the industry does tend to want to turn them into little consumers, buying things and making them sound 11 or 12 when they’re only 5 or 6. One of my great passions is to stop that happening. I think it’s very damaging for kids to grow up too quickly. Kids should have a proper childhood where they’re are aloud to be kids for as long as they need to be then grow up when they grow up. Which is probably around 18 or so”
“I think one of the saddest things you get is when a parent says, “My child doesn’t watch Playschool anymore. They only listen to Hillary Duff, Britney Spears or Mariah Carey.” I think “Oh god that’s awful!” I think that’s a really awful thing to happen to a child.” I’m glad you’re on our side Peter. I too think the most awful thing to happen to a child is becoming a fan of Mariah Carey.
With groups like The Wiggles raking in more money around the world than every other pop artists in Australia put together you would think that the Aussie childrens music invasion was upon us. Yet childrens music seems to be something just for kids
When it comes to recognition in the mass media. “One of the tricky things about kids music is there is no status to it. You will never get a kids album reviewed by a mainstream newspaper. They just ignore them. If I put a new album out tomorrow I can guarantee that every single newspaper in the country will completely ignore it. The Australian, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, they just ignore it.” (Oh yes, we’re naming and shaming here at Dwarf!) “They’ll review kids books but not kids albums and that’s part of the problem. It has no dignity and one of my passions in life is to raise the general status of childrens music. It deserves better than that.”
The problem isn’t helped that only one label in Australia will release childrens artists. “When I started doing this in about 1992-3 there were about 25 different kids acts doing things across Australia, all on the ABC for kids label. Because the ABC label is the only label for kids that exists. So if you were not on the ABC then you were no one. Now because the ABC only push whatever is on TV the whole field narrowed terribly and I think it’s really sad… The average parent now if they don’t know me will only know the Wiggles and Hi-5.” So the future of kids music seems much the same as for indie music. “You have to do it yourselves cause you’re not gonna get any help form the industry.” And that’s what Peter has been doing. Promoting himself via the internet and organising his own distribution. DIY seems to be the only way you can get a record out there. “Cause people like Sony Universal, Warner, Mushroom have absolutely zero interest in children’s music. Full stop. Nothing. And that’s never gonna change.”
But playing live to kids is where Peters heart will always lay. “…the best bit for me is singing and performing to an audience who wants to be there, who want to sing the songs. It’s almost an ideal situation to perform in. I’ve never taken it for granted. The sheer happiness of when you meet them after the show is almost overwhelming. I love them, they love me. It’s a bit of a love fest really. It’s quite touching”
It didn’t take long to see how much Peter got from being a kids entertainer. “I love it! I think within the bounds of good taste the sky’s the limit with children, you can be quite sophisticated or very simply, you can really stretch kids with interesting musical styles. I love getting it right. One of my great hates is people doing sloppy stuff for kids who just think, “Oh any old thing will do, they’re only 3 they wouldn’t know the difference.” There’s some truth to that but at the same time I think it’s rather insulting to a child.” However after nearly half an hour I got the feeling that he had found what most people have been looking for in life; A purpose. “I almost envy kids in the way that they have a slightly naive way of looking at the world. They tend not to think badly of anyone and I think it’s a really wonderful quality to actually think well of people. It is a lovely quality that they have this belief that people are basically ok and I think it’s something we ought to allow them to keep believing as they grow up.” So do I Peter, so do I.
