NATIONAL TOUR MARKS

NEW ALBUM RELEASE

FANS OF ALL AGES rejoice! Beloved icon of children’s entertainment, Peter Combe has returned with a new album – Live It Up - and a massive national tour to celebrate the CD release.

An ARIA-award winning performer, Peter has created the timeless children’s classics Wash Your Face With Orange Juice, Spaghetti Bolognaise, Toffee Apple, Juicy Juicy Green Grass and Newspaper Mama, and these are just the tip of the iceberg of his famous hits for children in a career that spans more than three decades.

Live It Up celebrates Peter’s 15th album and his finest work to date as he continues to raise the bar when others are winding back their careers.

A mix of soaring chorus singers, contemporary folk songs, pop ditty’s, call and response ‘echo’ tracks, made up nonsense words, Spike Milligan references and spoken work poetry, this album even involves Peter’s family, including his grandchildren who inspired some of the songs and stories.

Live It Up will have pride of place on the national tour show set lists alongside Peter’s greatest hits from his 35 years of prolific songwriting.

Kicking off in April after a series of sold-out shows at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Peter is taking on tour a show jam-packed full of hits and new music. The all ages matinee shows are designed specifically for children and those parents who were raised on Peter’s music to share the experience with their little ones.

“When I do a matinee, the audience usually consists of adults in their 30’s who come along because they want their children to hear the songs they grew up on,” Peter says. “What’s really delightful is when you see the parents singing and they know the lyrics better than the children!”

Peter’s songs are unquestionably a sing-a-long extravaganza for all ages and his shows are often reviewed as ‘the happiest place on earth’.

Audiences will be surprised by how well they remember the lyrics to these songs. The material on the Live It Up album is all about that fun and promises to delight when Peter brings it to the stage.

“The reason the track Live It Up came about is because of my daughter, who runs a performing arts school,” says Peter. “She wanted a song to finish off a show, a finale, a celebratory, big theatre kind of song for kids. Live It Up is that song, and you can imagine finishing up a show with it. I’m looking forward to doing it on this tour.”

Another exciting element to this tour is Peter’s inclusion of local performing arts children who will be joining him on stage at each concert.

Encouraging the up-and-coming performers of the future is important, he said.

“As a children’s performer, it’s always seemed the most natural thing in the world to work with children on stage,” he says. “I’ve done this all the way through my career. On the Live It Up… And Belly Flop in a Pizza! tour I’ll be working with different local children’s dancers and/or choirs in each of the capital cities. It’s an aspect of the tour that I’m looking forward to enormously!”

A household name since 1987 when Peter released his first of many albums, Toffee Apple, the prolific entertainer has gone on to make timeless adult friendly songs and educational music set to inform and inspire generations.

Peter has won three well-deserved ARIAs for Best Children’s Album, has been awarded seven gold and two platinum CDs and has notched up over a million sales – he is a trailblazer of Australian children’s music and sees no end in sight for his songwriting, recording and touring.

“The great part of touring is performing,” says Peter. “Of all the things I do, the hardest part is writing and creating.

Recording is the second hardest thing you do. In a funny kind of way, the great reward you get after writing and recording, mixing and mastering, is finally going on the road and singing. Singing will always remain as something I love to do. I love to sing, that’s my reward.”

Join the party and take a trip down memory lane with the Paul Simon of children’s songwriting, whether you’re young or old, there’s never been a better time to be a (big or little) kid!

Tickets for Peter Combe’s Live It Up – Belly Flop in a Pizza! tour are on sale now and his new album Live It Up is due for release on Friday May 5.

You can catch Peter's performance at the Subiaco Arts Centre, Perth on May 6; The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre, June 10, Adamson Hall, Wesley College, Melbourne, June 24; West Point, Hobart, July 2; QUT Gardens Theatre, Brisbane, July 15; and Monkey Baa, Sydney, August 5.

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