Review – Peter Combe: Quirky Berserky The Turkey from Turkey

Peter Combe has been making music to entertain children for a long time (his first album being released in… wait… what… that can’t be right… 1982!?). So long that many of the kids he once mesmerised with quirky alliterations and repetitive call and response vocals, are now adults with kiddlywinks of their own.

Those parents brought their kids in droves and lined up their pushers outside The Vagabond (the venue coincidentally sharing its name with Combe’s first album) to see Mr Combe lay down some serious steel stringed silliness.

Ably supported by some talented and enthusiastic local kids from Theatre Bugs and the calm keys of Phil, Combe enchanted all of the little dudes and dudettes in the crowd (and the bigger ones too). He got them dancing, clapping and singing along; bands performing for adults would kill for that level of audience participation.

Combe started the show slowly with some mild and mindless tunes, but built the energy through some material with great messages about coping with change and less great messages about how to be outstanding little backseat drivers. As the energy lifted, a kiddie mosh pit of sorts formed at the foot of the stage, signalling the cascade of Combe’s older material.

All the songs they made me sing in primary school came out, bringing back memories of simpler times: when you weren’t embarrassed to be joyous. There was of course some irony attached to the toddler’s singing along to ‘Newspaper Mama’; like they even know what a newspaper is…

Kid’s songs are simple, but that doesn’t necessarily make them easy to write or perform, and Combe’s consummate delivery demonstrated why he has endured for so long.