The first line in the chorus of Mr Clicketty Cane, Peter Combe\u2019s most famous song, is so beloved that the song itself has been renamed for it: \u201cWash your face in orange juice.\u201d When the Australian kids\u2019 entertainer performs this song for children, he asks them to sing back to him. And they do, with the solemn seriousness of a child who has been given a job to do by an adult they don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
But with every new silly instruction (and this hasn\u2019t changed in the 40 years he has been singing it), they get gigglier. Even the 10- and 11-year-olds \u2013 the hardest people to win over in any room, according to Combe, because by then they\u2019ve learned what it means to be cool.<\/p>\n
\u201cClean your teeth with bubble gum,\u201d he sings, then: \u201cFix the fence with sticky tape \/ Brush your hair with a toothbrush \/ Fry an egg on a slippery dip.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time Combe\u2019s telling them to \u201cbelly flop in a pizza\u201d, even the 10- and 11-year-olds are smiling and shouting and bouncing along with the six-year-olds, the room united in a delighted, anarchic screech. Belly flop in a pizza?<\/p>\n
\u201cKids just wait for that line. It\u2019s the one song I never, ever have to teach. It seems to be known by every child in the country,\u201d Combe says. He calls the song his American Pie; at the thousands of shows he has played at schools, festivals and libraries across Australia, he always plays it last. If he skips it, people complain.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad it is not eight minutes long, otherwise I\u2019d be insane by now,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt\u2019s lovely that kids love it to bits. That still gets to me. I\u2019d love to give it a two-year rest, but I can\u2019t. I just can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A few years ago, Combe, who has built a second career in performing for the adults who listened to him as children, was booked to play a show at a university in Melbourne. All the twentysomethings streamed into the quadrangle with their newspaper hats and toffee apples, and sang all the lyrics that had survived somewhere in the back of their brains. And when Combe got to Mr Clicketty Cane and \u201cbelly flop in a pizza\u201d, one student stepped forth and took off his shirt.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe laid an enormous pizza on the ground and simply belly flopped into it,\u201d says Combe. \u201cHe got an enormous cheer, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n
He tells this story with the ease of someone who has not only told it many times, but relived it in his mind again and again with astonished delight. \u201cI think silliness is very underrated,\u201d he tells me later. \u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful thing to be silly. I\u2019ve spent so much of my life laughing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter Combe\u2019s records Newspaper Mama (1988) and Spaghetti Bolognaise (1985). Photograph: Carrie Jones\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Combe is about to turn 77. I remember him, as many millennial Australians would, as he was in the video for his 1987 hit Toffee Apple<\/a>, which seemed to always be on the ABC; or the various times he turned up at one of my schools and put on a raucous show in the library. He\u2019s just greyer now; his bulging blue eyes, so good for pulling faces, haven\u2019t changed at all. He still runs five times a week.<\/p>\n \u201cProbably stating the bleeding obvious, but I do have less energy,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m in self-denial.\u201d<\/p>\n You should never underestimate a child. You don\u2019t know what they\u2019re thinking<\/p>\n Combe was a children\u2019s singer-songwriter a good decade BWE (Before Wiggles Era); his first kids\u2019 album, Songs for Little Kids, came out in 1982. This was when children\u2019s music was just nursery rhymes; record labels didn\u2019t believe children could appreciate music. But Combe built a cottage industry selling Songs for Little Kids \u2013 recorded himself \u2013 to his friends, then their friends, then friends of friends of friends: \u201cI sold hundreds of them, entirely by word of mouth. And I could tell almost straight away that this was going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n (\u201cThis\u201d, meaning a 40-year career.)<\/p>\n \u201cAll false modesty aside, I was a pioneer,\u201d Combe adds. \u201cLiterally no one was doing it. I had no interest in singing nursery rhymes. I remember thinking, there are authors all over the world who write new stories for children \u2013 why don\u2019t people write them new songs?\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018I had no interest in singing nursery rhymes,\u2019 says Combe. Photograph: Carrie Jones\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Combe has recorded 18 albums, won three Arias and sold more than 1m albums and DVDs. There are the boppy classics \u2013 Newspaper Mama<\/a>, Toffee Apple, Spaghetti Bolognaise \u2013 but he has also done Christmas albums and lullabies.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a misconception that children just react to fast, dancey, up-tempo stuff. They do, but they also like the soft songs as well,\u201d he says. \u201cYou should never underestimate a child. You don\u2019t know what they\u2019re thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n He has always been focused on the music; even when he sold out Sydney Opera House (twice), Combe went out with his \u201crickety little keyboard\u201d and not much else. \u201cNo production values, whatsoever!\u201d he laughs. And he\u2019s indifferent to the noise around the music, like merchandise: \u201cThe Wiggles have endless merch and I think a lot of it is just junk,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019d much rather spend the time on what matters, which is the music.\u201d<\/p>\n Years ago, a woman came up to him after a show in Melbourne and told him that one of his songs, Music of the Day<\/a>, had saved her life.<\/p>\n \u201cIt stopped her from taking her own life. You could say that was a boost to ego,\u201d Combe reflects. \u201cBut it was more an extraordinary example of the power of music.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Saved for Later<\/p>\n Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia’s culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n In 2003, when 100,000 people took to Adelaide\u2019s streets<\/a> to march against John Howard\u2019s plan to send Australian troops to Iraq, some may have been surprised to see Mr Clicketty Cane at the front, singing Joni Mitchell\u2019s anti-war anthem The Fiddle and the Drum. (Beginning as it does: \u201cAnd so once again \/ My dear Johnny, my dear friend \u2026 \u201d)<\/p>\n But Combe came of age during the Vietnam war and was educated by the likes of Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen and Mitchell. \u201cMusicians with a real sense of justice, social responsibility,\u201d he says. \u201cI was very affected by it. It\u2019s part of my DNA.<\/p>\n \u201cSo when something like Gaza is happening, it\u2019s very hard to ignore it,\u201d he adds. \u201cChildren are being slaughtered, on a daily basis, for almost two years. Our ability to ignore it astounds me. You can talk to any NGO, they all say the same thing \u2013 it\u2019s a genocide. How can we turn a blind eye?\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018You like to think that your values come through in your music.\u2019 Photograph: Carrie Jones\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Combe has written songs about Iraq (\u201can appalling thing \u2013 I can\u2019t bear Howard being deified now, it makes me sick\u201d) and David Hicks<\/a>, the Adelaide man who was imprisoned for six years in Guant\u00e1namo Bay: \u201cI felt very strongly about this young guy who\u2019d made a mistake and ended up in Guant\u00e1namo Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n He has never hesitated about speaking up for what he believes in, and he doesn\u2019t when it comes to Gaza. \u201cThe Israelis cut off their water, electricity, food. So why are we surprised when children are starving to death? To behave that badly and for there to be this massive silence \u2013 it\u2019s just eerie. [Israel says] we have the right to defend ourselves. Do any of us have the right to obliterate an entire people? Obviously not.\u201d<\/p>\n It is a rare children\u2019s entertainer who will comment on politics; the parents tend to get wobbly about it, perhaps from fear the topic will worry their children \u2013 or from some underlying belief that children\u2019s entertainers are apolitical, asexual, unserious beings who have never held an adult thought. \u201cBut I think I have an obligation to say something on Gaza,\u201d Combe says. \u201cYou like to think that your values come through in your music \u2013 I hope people aren\u2019t surprised I feel the way I do. If they aren\u2019t, I am pleased.\u201d<\/p>\n Childhood is a precious state; he dislikes anything, such as war, that makes kids grow up too fast. \u201cI think it\u2019s quite sad and unhealthy to not value childhood immensely. It\u2019s a wonderful part of your life,\u201d he says. \u201cI was lucky to have an incredibly good childhood and I\u2019ve never stopped thanking my parents for that. It is the greatest gift you can give your children.\u201d<\/p>\n What set his childhood apart, he thinks, was that he felt deeply loved \u2013 not just that he was loved, he stresses, but that he knew he was. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a big deal,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n