Peter Combe keeps the silly songs coming for kids and kids at heart
Australian musician and children’s performer Peter Combe is returning to Fringe to delight young Fringe-goers (and the young-at-heart) with all-new songs and some classic, fan-favourite tunes. Peter Combe in Brush Your Hair with a Toothbrush draws on Combe’s expansive anthology of delightful, silly and whimsical songs for one day only at Lotterywest De Parel Spiegeltent at The Pleasure Garden on Sunday, February 15, with tickets on sale now. BEC WELDON sat down with Peter Combe to find out more about the show, his latest album, and just where his wonderfully bonkers ideas for songs come from.
Hi Peter! Welcome back to Perth Fringe for 2026. What are you expecting to share with Perth audiences this year?
Some new songs from my last album, A Frog in My Cheese Sandwich, plus a selection from the Toffee Apple, Newspaper Mama, Spaghetti Bolognaise, Live It Up and Wash Your Face in Orange Juice albums.
Tell us about your latest album, A Frog in My Cheese Sandwich (released in August 2024)!
It’s an eclectic mix of the quirky, educational and melodic with a string quartet on three tracks, a beautiful boy soprano, kids singing various verses and choruses, plus some poems with a Spike Milligan twist!
Your songs have a charming whimsy to them; what inspires ideas like washing your face in orange juice?
I often don’t know where my ideas come from, but I love comical, whimsical songs to be poetic as well. Sometimes I can remember exactly what inspired a song, e.g., Spaghetti Bolognaise… two kids playing marbles. Newspaper Mama and Wash Your Face in Orange Juice—I don’t remember. Songwriting is a mysterious process.
You’re no stranger to Fringe World; what draws you to festivals such as Perth’s?
It’s the perfect environment for doing a concert… family-friendly, the Pleasure Garden is a great venue, Fringe World is marketed brilliantly, the staff are very helpful and all the techs are great to work with.
You initially entered the music scene making music for a more general, adult audience. What drew you to produce music for younger Australians?
I realised as far back as the early 1970s that no one seemed to be composing new songs for children, so in 1973, while teaching, I wrote my first set of children’s songs as part of a musical play for children based on a book called Bows Against the Barons. Following that, another three musical plays while teaching. So I guess that teaching was what prompted me to start writing children’s songs.
You’ve been recording kids’ albums since the 1980s, with your first album released on cassette! Your songs still delight and resonate with generations of Australian youth. What do you think gives your music that timelessness?
I think my respect for the intelligence of children, my dedication to writing strong melodies and thoughtful and often funny lyrics and my attention to detail when recording… using good musicians, good recording engineers and taking time to get everything right. And I think good songs will always be good songs… in other words, timeless.
Do you have a performance memory that sticks with you?
The first performance of my musical Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, with a four-piece band, an 18-piece orchestra and 18 soloists in front of 25,000 people at Elder Park in Adelaide in 1992.
Having been producing for children for several decades, you must’ve seen first-hand the rapid shifts in the nature and mediums of children’s entertainment since then. Can you tell us about your experiences of that?
Basically when modern-day children, who spend hours on mobile phones and other screens, come to a live performance, they are as equally entranced and engaged in 2026 as they were in 1983, my first year as a full-time children’s singer/songwriter.
Thank you for speaking with us! For a final question, what impact do you hope to have on your audience this season?
To be entertained, to laugh, to sing, to walk out after the concert very happy and feeling good about life, uplifted.
Peter Combe in Brush Your Hair with a Toothbrush will be playing at Lotterywest De Parel Spiegeltent at The Pleasure Garden on Sunday, February 15, 2026. Tickets are on sale now from fringeworld.com.au