QUICK TAKES

Elton John and Billy Joel's troubled Face To Face tour rolls on with even more postponements -- now due to Billy Joel's unnamed illness. The "Piano Men" have postponed tonight's (November 20th) Salt Lake City show at Energy Solutions Arena until February 19th. Sunday's (November 22nd) Denver gig at the Pepsi Center is now postponed until February 22nd.

Eltonjohn.com posted a message saying Sunday's Denver tickets are good for the rescheduled date, but refunds are also available at the point of purchase. (Pollstar.com)

Phil Collins has become grandfather for the first time at age 58. Collins' 37-year-old daughter Joely Collins had given birth on October 26th to daughter Zoe Amelie, her first child with husband Stefan Buitelaar. Collins said of the birth, "Life has gone to a new level for me. I'm absolutely thrilled and I'm so happy for Joely and Stefan. They are truly happy." (The Daily Mail)

ZZ Top helped a stranded couple while on tour near Prince George, British Columbia. ZZ Top's tour and production manager Ali Hocking blogged that the couple, who had been snowboarding in celebration of the one-year anniversary of their engagement, had slid off the highway on a stretch of wet and icy road near Jasper, BC. When the band caught a glimpse of the couple -- who might have frozen if left alone -- they tried to tow the car back on the road with their tour bus, before finally giving up and driving the couple straight to Jasper. (Pollstar.com)

Daryl Hall and John Oates, will be appearing as themselves on Fox's hit animated comedy, The Cleveland Show on Sunday (November 22nd) at 8:30pm ET/PT. The duo will reportedly make additional appearances on the show in the near future.

R.E.M. PROVIDES A PEAK INTO THE STUDIO

R.E.M. recently started work on a new album, and now the band is giving fans a sneak peak at the latest studio sessions. Singer Michael Stipe posted a pair of short video clips at REMHQ.com. The group has been in a Portland, Oregon studio to record its 15the studio album and first since 2008's Accelerate. R.E.M. is working with producer Jacknife Lee, who dished about their recent sessions, noting that the new set will resemble the live-in-the-studio process used on Accelerate.

There's no word on when the album will surface. R.E.M. recently released a concert set, called Live At The Olympia, which includes 39 tracks from the group's 2007 five-night stint in Dublin, Ireland.

ACADEMY AWARDS SNUB ROCK DOCS

Two acclaimed rock documentaries, It Might Get Loud and Anvil! The Story Of Anvil, were left off the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' short list of 15 films in consideration for an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary, according to Slashfilm.com. The 15 titles now on the list will be pared down to a slate of five finalists, with the winner announced at the Academy Awards ceremony in March.

It Might Get Loud featured an in-depth look at Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, U2 axeman The Edge and White Stripes/Raconteurs frontman Jack White as they discussed the craft of playing guitar and their personal musical histories, culminating in the three musicians jamming together. The highly regarded Anvil!, meanwhile, told the story of a real-life Spinal Tap, the Canadian metal act Anvil who have persevered with their career through nearly 30 years of bad breaks and worse luck.

For Anvil, the movie's success has actually lifted them from obscurity. The movie premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, while the band has since opened for AC/DC, performed on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien and made an appearance in Seth Rogen's upcoming movie, The Green Hornet.

While promoting the release of It Might Get Loud, Jimmy Page said that he thinks he, White and The Edge have stayed relevant because they've been able to evolve: "I think you get measured up by, you know, what you do, what you produce as far as your music goes, 'cause that's how you're gonna be measured up. And I guess that's what I'm gonna be, you know, what I have to do, is to make that sort of statement. For all of us really - I mean, Jack's constantly changing his, you know, perception on things, and very well I might add. For me, it's almost like the same picture with a different frame."

Several film news websites also noted other omissions from the Academy short list, such as Tyson and Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story.

RAY DAVIES REVISITS KINKS CLASSICS ON NEW CHORAL COLLECTION

Ray Davies credits the original reviews the Kinks received in 1964 for "You Really Got Me" for his new choral album. Davies, who's teamed up with the Crouch End Festival Chorus for the new The Kinks Choral Collection, has reworked a bunch of the group's greatest hits with a small band, and added a newly-arranged choir accompaniment.

Davies shed light on how 45 years later, the Kinks' first U.S. hit inspired the new solo disc: "I think back to when I wrote 'You Really Got Me.' And then the record came out, many people, critics, whatever, said it was a 'rock and roll Gregorian chant' because of the melody is quite Gregorian. At that time, I listened to a lot of Gregorian because I didn't know what it was (laughs)! So there was a critique that it was like a Gregorian chant, which is choral music, and it's ended up on this record. And I've tried to incorporate some of that feel into the introduction before the drums come in."

The tracklisting to The Kinks Choral Collection is: "Days," "Waterloo Sunset," "You Really Got Me," "Victoria," "See My Friends," "Celluloid Heroes," "Shangri-La," "Working Man's Cafe," "Village Green," "Picture Book," "Big Sky," "Do You Remember Walter?," "Johnny Thunder," "Village Green," "Preservation Society," and "All Day And All Of The Night."

Ray Davies tour dates (subject to change):
November 20 - New York, NY - Town Hall
November 21 - Upper Darby, PA - Tower Theatre
November 23 - Albany, NY - Hart Theatre at The Egg
November 24 - Montclair, NJ - Wellmont Theatre

RINGO STARR DUETS WITH PAUL McCARTNEY ON NEW ALBUM

Ringo Starr will release his latest album called Y Not on January 12th, with the obvious highlight being his first-ever duet with Paul McCartney on the track "Walk With You." Among the other notable guests on the album are Ringo's brother-in-law Joe Walsh, Gary Wright, Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Van Dyke Parks, Don Was, Joss Stone, Richard Marx, Ben Harper, Glen Ballard, and Roundheads guitarist Gary Burr, among others.

Starr wrote about teaming up with McCartney on his official website (ringostarr.com) saying, "Paul was doing the Grammys, so he came over to the house and was playing bass on 'Peace Dream.' So I played him this other track and Paul said, 'Give me the headphones. Give me a pair of cans.' And he went to the mike and he just invented that part where he follows on my vocal. That was all Paul McCartney, and there could be nothing better. He makes it bigger and he makes it fuller. It makes the song like a conversation between us, and that was Paul's idea to do his part one beat behind me. That's why he's a gen-i-us and an incredible bass player."

The McCartney-Starr collaboration "Walk With You" was written with Brian Wilson's legendary Smile collaborator Van Dyke Parks.

He went on to explain that from here on out, it will be him that makes the final decisions on his future albums: "I was the least involved in the production of the Beatles records. And then with my solo records, I worked with some other great producers like Richard Perry, Arif Mardin, and Don Was. So it just seemed like that's the way that it goes. Then suddenly, it's another point in your life, and you say, 'I'm going do this now.' So I'll be producing anything I make from now on. That's the good news. It's a confidence thing, I suppose. And Y Not is really another way of me saying, 'Yes, I can.'

The album's opening number called "Fill In The Blanks" is written, played and sung by only Starr and Walsh.

He'll once again touch upon his Liverpool roots with "The Other Side Of Liverpool," which is being described as "a revealing autobiographical song that explores Starr's earliest and darkest days."

Starr explained: "People believe I was born, was a Beatle and lived in a big house. And where I come from was a very dark, damp, violent neighborhood. I wanted to write another little snapshot of my life, and I'm going to do this every album. It's better for me than doing it in a book. In two lines I can say what would take five pages. Like the song says, 'The other side of Liverpool is cold and damp/Only way out of there/drums, guitar and amp.'"

He says that he'll always have a hometown tradition to thank for giving him his legendary stage name: "Where I come from, in Liverpool, people get nicknames. And I was wearing a lot of rings. And first of all, they started calling me 'Rings.' And then when we went to Butlins Holiday Camp, we changed our names, we all took cowboy names, and I thought 'Ringo Starkey' wasn't quite cowboy enough, so I started calling myself 'Ringo Starr.' And I've been Ringo ever since."

Starr says he got an unexpected vote of confidence when he played the album for oldest son and Who drummer Zak Starkey: "I just played it for my son Zak. And Zak was so great. He said, 'Dad, it's great. This rocks! You should have been doing this forever.' It's nice coming from your boy, especially since he's a really good drummer."

Ringo Starr's Y Not is his album first on the Hip-O Records/UMe label.