Don’t Stop
 

https://youtu.be/hjjjnll9Wd0
2000 person choir singing Don’t Stop
We packed Southam Hall at the National Arts Centre for our
new show, "DREAMS" - An EPIC Fleetwood Mac Sing-Along.
It was an incredible night singing some of their very best and many more,
culminating in a beautiful performance of Mac's classic feel good anthem, "Don't Stop".
Put some headphones on and sing along with us!

RIP, Christine McVie. We dedicate this to her, the indelible songbird,
who wrote some of the greatest songs ever. XO

We are BACK at the NAC in Ottawa on July 15th, 2023 with...
"We Will CHOIR! You: An EPIC Queen Sing-Along!
Tix available here:
https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/34035
C! you there...

Much Love,
DaBu

Don’t Stop is definitely one of the most played songs by Fleetwood Mac but still one of the best! Great tribute!

So fun and poignant, thank you.

I hear Don't Stop as much as Everywhere and GYOW.

Da Googlez says that Little Lies is the most played FM song. Followed by Dreams, GYOW, Everywhere, and Don't Stop at #5.

I thought it read, "Dr. Googles". haha

Don't Stop has an interesting history on stage. It was not in the set on the Rumours tour. It was added for several shows on the last leg. Oh Daddy, YMLF, and Songbird were Chris's songs on the tour. I suppose it being a late single it was not rehearsed in the tour rehearsals. It was really showcased on the Tusk tour where it was very early in the set. It also held an early spot on the Mirage tour. During Chris's solo tour, she made Don't Stop a closer which worked really well. It also was a closer on the Tango, BTM, and Farewell tours. In 1992 it became a political anthem and had new life. It worked into the Dance several years later quite nice with a brass section for their video concert. When Chris left, IMHO Fleetwood Mac concerts seemed empty without Dont Stop and Chris. Dont Stop was the song that reintroduced Chris back with the band on stage in Ireland. Its such a positive anthem similar to Don't Stop Believing with Journey. I love everything about the song. Chris's shuffle made the song but the production with Lindsey gave it that sweetness that took the song to another level.

I didn't like this song for a long time. Now, I appreciate it like you do. It has quite the history! I loved her version on the 1984 tour. She covered it really well. Also, it's one of the songs that I don't want to hear Stevie on.
It's pure BuckVie.

Don't Stop makes so much sense as a rousing closer and I wonder if that's the song she would have preferred to close FM shows. She always said she wanted something upbeat but it was the rest of the band that wanted Songbird.

I haven’t heard Everywhere on the radio since the 80’s. I only hear it on TV commercials. 😎👍

Wow, I hear it all the time in stores, Sirius, and of course TV.

She kind of got her wish. That ended up being the last song Fleetwood Mac ever played.

They still played it, but Stevie butchered the lyrics. Christine was definitely missed.

I meant “traditional radio”

OMG. The Unleashed tour version does not count.

1984 was the last Dont Stop on a grand piano. Once 1987 rolled along it was all electronic sounding piano. My memory is the grand piano came out of the stage only for HAEWFY.

I believe that's correct. I remember HAEWAFY and Songbird... I think...

I can barely stand terrestrial radio. Once in a while but it's usually so many commercials. I don't bother.

Don’t Stop—it’s one of the first FM songs I remember (along with Rhiannon and SYLM). I have always LOVED the studio version with all of what Mick calls “the cream on the top.” The interplay of voices, the rousing shuffle, the synth playing key notes toward the end…

But it’s never been among my favorite live. I really dug Christine’s piano on it, especially that jazzy addition from the Tusk, Mirage and 1984 tours. But overall, it just never matched the magic of the studio version. By contrast, I love the raucous live performances of Hold Me from the Mirage tour…

I LOVED the raw Hold Me. I'd give anything if it had always been a staple.

I agree it had so much energy….I’m glad it was done on the BuckMcVie tour.

Yes, I really love the way her 1984 band did Hold Me. It was better than Mirage.

Yes and her 1984 band was awesome.I’m glad I got to see one show live.

Which one did you see? She never realized it, but she was a great band leader. She knew how to arrange better than she ever realized, too.

kings Dominion in Virginia in the summer of 1984. Great show! I agree she was a great band leader.

Agreed. And those audio files posted on YouTube are proof she was doing really tight, professional shows. I wish she had had the confidence to do more projects on her own. On the other hand, what I love most about her are her humility, modesty, and eagerness to be a team player within the band. She was always focused on doing whatever was needed to serve a song (as opposed to serving herself or her image).

I’m glad I have a couple of her solo live shows on CD for my MAC collection.

I don’t think it was lack of confidence. I think she didn’t see the point in doing something outside of Fleetwood Mac when she was the main hit writer in the band. She wasn’t Stevie, with albums worth of unused songs, and she wasn’t Lindsey, with about a million different ways of killing a cow. So long as Mick and John were there with her, she was in her element.

Even on her 1984 album, John helped in the demo work for “Love Will Show Us How” and offered the inspiration for “The Challenge,” while Mick and Lindsey actually played on the album. Hell, she even brought back John Courage to be her manager. Fleetwood Mac was where her heart was.

Given all her hit singles, she hypothetically could have launched a comeback tour outside of Fleetwood Mac in 2013 with the core of her 1984 band plus whoever else. Wasn’t even joked about.

She herself used the words “lack of confidence”—or near equivalents—in a few interviews over the years. Unless this was false modesty, I accept it. I remember at the time of The Dance she said she lacked the necessary charisma to go it alone on the road but that she felt she could do a studio album. She obviously could gave done both!

What you and Steve both said. It's weird, having so many hits, and yet only a relatively small number of people show up for your concerts. There's certainly no accounting for taste, YET she knew where her place was. Part of the band. Not everyone wants or needs to be out there spinning around like a drunken sailor. Some people are content at their station in life. She found her station, as was content with that.

That should be a lesson for the world.

Yes. She has said she never wanted to do her 1984 solo album. It was Warner Brothers that wanted it. She would only do it with a partner which she liked playing and recording with Todd. A few music critics gave her flack for using Lindsey and Mick on her solo album i.e. what's the point of going solo if you sound like Fleetwood Mac and use the same band members.
Both Chris and Lindsey have expressed their disappointment in the lack of success in their solo careers. I think it hurt Lindsey more though. To be fair, the mid 80s were tough on all 70s bands. Even Stevie's slick embrace of 80s synth pop did not yield huge results. Although she was already established as a credible solo star. If there was no pop tune Talk To Me given to her and she had not recorded 2 prior successful solo albums, RAL would have been laughed at. Both Chris and Lindsey's 1984 solo albums are far superior to Stevie's 1985 RAL and she spent a fortune to record it over 2 years.

I always laugh when Stevie says The Wild Heart was every bit as successful as Bella Donna.

Stand Back was huge, thanks to Prince and her use of disco, but the album itself wasn't. If the album was huge, then Trouble in Shangri-La was huge too.

You also have to consider, in addition to her wanting to be in a band vs. solo ...she was in the band and toured more tours than LB and SN. By the time Tusk ended, I can imagine she wanted to breath before the next FM album / tour. She was also the band leader IMO during the Tango and especially BTM tours. It's a lot of work.

That’s right. In October 1986, Yamaha released its KX88, the first completely programmable and assignable MIDI keyboard, and Christine picked that up for the 1987 tour, thanks to Dan Garfield. Before the KX88 and its terrific touch sensitivity and weighted hammer action, if you wanted a grand piano, you had to rely on a real grand or a handful of modules or the DX7 (which had no hammer action). Not super-duper.

I wonder what it would feel like trying to play 'Don't Stop' with all it's shuffles and funky stuff, on non-weighted keys.

I have tried. My fingers kept slipping off the keys. And the sound wasn't great. When there are no dynamics (other than loud or soft) the shuffle sounds like crap.

I bet! And the left hand is constantly doing intervals that need bounce.