'Christmas CD is brilliant'-Glen Reid, Music Specialist at Linden Park Primary School, South Australia CD REVIEW of 'WAKE UP IT'S CHRISTMAS' by Marnie Agnew - The KUCA News Spring 2005 issue Well-known children's entertainer Peter Combe has a new Christmas CD out. It's full of the usual Peter Combe mixture of the seriously lyrical to the downright absurd, and my prediction is kids will love it. Wake Up it's Christmas offers a great mix of styles, moods and experiences of Christmas, mostly from an essentially Australian (or southern hemisphere) viewpoint including watermelon, swimming pools and cricket on the telly. Songs that connect with the traditional story include the reflective No Room, which is one of my favourites (quite different from the song of similar name on his original Christmas album -also one of my favourites) Miracle (in a style I call Christmas Rock) and It's Christmas Again. Many of the songs conjure up images of our hot, dry Australian summer Christmases. Especially so are Down in the South Lullaby and Wake Up Sleepyhead, along with the frenetic Kangaroo Hop, a typical Peter Combe romp that kids will love. I love the fact that so many of the songs reflect children's experience of Christmas including Christmas Day Has Come Again. There's the expected silly songs that young children will giggle at, including Ticketty Boo, A Very Silly Christmas Song (what else?) and Father Christmas and Dave, which are nicely balanced by songs that ask some harder social questions: So Far Away and No Room. Also included is the traditional English Wassail, and an up-beat version of Good King Wenceslas, which seem a little out of place in an album so unapologetically Australian. What I like about Peter's music is the variation of style and content, the essentially Australian flavour, and the musical sophistication with which he writes. Peter recognises in children the capacity for musical intelligence. There is a range and sophistication in his music which respects his audience and doesn't patronise them. At the same time he's not afraid to acknowledge that kids want to have fun and have a great sense of the absurd. All of which means that the adults can enjoy listening to their kid's music as well.