James Haddrell speaks on music’s influence to change lives

There can’t be many people for whom music hasn’t played a part in their life – certain songs or pieces of music that take you back to places and times from the past, music that you have shared with other people, wedding playlists, film soundtracks, first records bought.

I certainly remember the impact that Elvis Presley’s In The Ghetto or The Who’s Tommy had in teaching me that songs can tell stories.

The Genesis song Jesus He Knows Me and its targeting of TV evangelists taught me that pop can be satirical.

Iconic songs like Bohemian Rhapsody taught me that pop can be theatrical.

All of those have stayed with me, and now my phone is full of songs that I’ve either used in shows or used to help develop parts of shows, taking on all of those influences and many, many more.

Sometimes though, music, and a person’s relationship to it, can transcend that level of engagement – and for two very different performers, both heading to Greenwich Theatre in June, music has proved to be a defining part of their identity.

On Wednesday, June 14, Christine Bovill makes an eagerly awaited return to Greenwich.

At the age of 14, Bovill was dropping out of French at school, but thanks to a love of old songs she was introduced by a family friend to the music of Edith Piaf.

The music changed the path of her life.

Gradually becoming obsessed with French culture and unpicking the French language, she ended up studying French at university and ultimately teaching French.

Now, after two acclaimed visits to Greenwich she’s back with her latest show, Piaf to Pop, which sees the arrival of the 1960s in Paris and the Americanisation of French music.

A time of great cultural change in France, this is an exploration of whether the high art of chanson could survive.

Then, on Saturday, June 17, John Osborne brings John Peel’s Shed to Greenwich.

The origins of Osborne’s show lie in 2002 when he won a competition on John Peel’s show on BBC Radio 1.

His prize was a box of records that took eight years to listen to.

The show has had its own life on radio already – having started as a radio show for Future Radio, a version of the show was recorded at the BBC Radio Theatre and broadcast on Radio 4 in December 2011.

Alongside that, in 2010, it premiered on the fringe and took the Edinburgh Festival by storm.

The show is also partly inspired by John’s acclaimed debut book Radio Head: Up And Down The Dial Of British Radio, which tells the story of what happened when he decided to listen to a different radio station every day.

His journey took him from data entry at Anglia Windows, via interviewing radio greats such as Nicholas Parsons, Tommy Boyd, Stuart Maconie and Mark Radcliffe, to presenting his own local radio show.

This show features a selection of records previously owned by the late John Peel, many of which are very rare recordings by obscure and now defunct bands, and really is an ode to that box of records, to music, and to the special place that radio occupies in so many people’s hearts.