By 1969, Combe was a primary school teacher and in the early 1970s, he was a specialist music teacher. He taught Junior school music at Prince Alfred College in the late 70's He started writing songs for his students and in 1973 he wrote his first 'operettas' for them. One of the early ones, "Bows Against the Barons", is based on Geoffrey Trease's novel of the same name, relating the legend of Robin Hood. The song, "Robin Hood's Dream", appeared on his 1988 album, "Newspaper Mama".