Peter Combe and the Juicy Juicy Green Band

I have always loved the nature of music that can transcend the barriers of language and time. Saturday night at the Evelyn, another near capacity crowd to add to his growing list, Peter Combe rocked the stage with the Juicy Juicy Green Band to a room of people that ordinarily wouldn’t have looked at each other twice, let alone sing along with and dance to. The crowd united by their common bond of a childhood filled with the timeless music of Peter Combe.

The night began with the smooth musical styling of Andrew Swift, who was joined on stage by a couple of his mates Prudence Warnock on the cello and back up vocals and Chris Hart on guitar. Swift was a fitting choice for the start of a fun night with great crowd interaction and grabbed the attention of the audience with his smooth acoustic melodies.

‘Do you remember Peter Combe?’ is usually greeted with the singsong response “Ahh yeah…newspaper mama, newspaper mama…everyday!” of course then followed by a five minute journey back through childhood, crooning along together to classics like Wash Your Face in Orange Juice, Juicy Juicy Green Grass and Toffee Apple. With his latest tour to young adults, (or children of the 80’s and 90’s) Peter Combe treats everyone to these old hits as well as so many more that have people grabbing a mates arm and declaring “Oh I remember this one from family car trips…”

Fortunately, for the sentimental value of his tour, little has changed since Peter Combe first graced our stages back in the 80’s, his exaggerated facial expressions and simple catchy lyrics still gather a gleeful crowd of followers. And evidently ‘newspaper mama mania’ hasn’t settled, with many people still turning up to gigs in newspaper hats and costumes, this time they are teemed with heels and skinny jeans as opposed to overalls and t-shirts.

As the night wore on, the drinks continued, the smiles got wider and the anticipation was building for some classic sing along tunes where we could throw our arms around each other. With just enough build up Combe finally broke into Newspaper mama and needless to say it was the hit of the evening. He didn’t leave it there and had the room ready to keep singing along, and sing they did, with Combe cracking ‘dad’ jokes like “you are much more in tune now, than when you were five”. Two clear favourite moments of mine were the songs Spangle Road, with the best line of “Ohhh Ohhhh, What could be better, than you and me together, walking down Spangle Road?” sung in nostalgic memory by the audience and the stage band. The other stand out moment was the eruption of giggles after the “Belly flop in a Pizza… BELLY FLOP IN A PIZZA, ewwww yuk!” that was recited without fault in the “Wash Your Face in Orange Juice song”

Still sporting the family friendly environment even in a pub, Combe was joined on stage by the Juicy Juicy Green Band, and in the band is Thomas Combe, who has definitely inherited his fathers talented musical genes as he played guitar and sang back up vocals in many numbers. The other back up vocalist who joined them on stage was Combes daughter Alice.

Still a rock star in his own right Peter Combe began and finished the night by arriving and leaving with the band playing on stage without him. Peter is still touring Australia and looks like he’ll be back again, if you were a fan of him 20 years ago I recommend getting along for trip down memory lane and just a fun night out. And I imagine he has paved the way for other childhood performers to follow suit so watch out for The Wiggles in six or seven years.

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