It’s been a while since we did one of our Six Degrees of Kevin Shields episodes, so to honour the new year, we are looking at musicians born on New Year’s Day to start proceedings. There are a few potential starters for this honour; Joe McDonald , the ‘Country’ one in Country Joe & the Fish ; Morgan Fisher, keyboard player with Mott The Hoople ; Ari Up (John Lydon’s stepdaughter) of The Slits ; Brody Dalle (Bree Robinson), the Australian born singer with punk band The Dist

Last weekend (12 October) saw the fortieth anniversary of the passing of one of the founding members of just about the funnest band to ever walk this planet. And, as a mark of respect, we are using that person as the starting link on our (very) occasional wander along Six Degrees Of Kevin Shields . As ever, if we get six links in, it will be more by luck than judgement - because it is all about the journey; the musical meandering from our starting point, along many random rou

As is something of a tradition now, we pay our respects to a recently departed musical great through the medium of Six Degrees Of Kevin...

When I saw the news the other day about Morten Harket, lead singer of Norway's biggest 1980's export, A-ha, my heart went out to him....

Jill Sobule, who tragically died in a house fire in Minneapolis, in the early hours of 1 May 2025, had forged a career largely under the...

The other day (26th March) marked the twentieth anniversary of the world losing Paul Hester. Now, he might not mean much to everyone, but...

There have been a few losses from the world of soul and R&B this week, what with Gwen McRae dying aged 81 at the end of last week, and...

There's time for a quick round of Six Degrees of Kevin Shields before we settle in for Christmas. But I needed a Christmas link to get...

I guess this forms part II of our commemoration of Quincy Jones, to go with our article on his passing earlier this week (see News...

Earlier this month (7th September) marked twenty one years since we lost the musician Warren Zevon in 2003, aged 56. Today we commemorate...

It's time for another one of our occasional wanderings through Six Degrees Of Kevin Shields . Each time, we start with a musical figure...

Right I know, there is a bit of a theme developing this week - but having seen them live last weekend, and sat and watched their glorious...

On this day (22 May) in 2002, Stuart Goddard appeared at the Old Bailey in London, having been charged with the possession of an...

We start the latest episode of Six Degrees Of Kevin Shields by commemorating the life of English musician, Chris Cross, who sadly passed...

She seems to have been the talk of the town, and well, pretty much most corners of the globe over the last few months. Whether it be...

Last weekend we reported on the sad passing of Wayne Kramer, guitarist with legendary proto-punks the MC5. He was highly revered in the...

What better way to start 2024 than with the man who sung New Year's Day? Yes, it's everyone favourite singer named after a Dublin barber...

This edition of the musical ramble we like to call Six Degrees Of Kevin Shields, begins as a tribute to Denny Laine, who passed away last...

Time for our occasional dip into the game we like to call Six Degrees Of Kevin Shields. As ever, we need some sort of musical reference...

As ever, here at Birds That Are Blue, we're a bit late to the party - but last week was the 60th birthday of the venerable Jarvis Cocker,...