video – 20th June 2008: scott manley hadley Plays & Sings ‘THE BARON SHITE SESSION’

One February weekend in 2025, scott manley hadley visited their childhood home.

In the back of a cupboard, they found a broken harmonica, a Yamaha keyboard from the previous century and a cassette tape.

The cassette tape had a handwritten label, with the following details scrawled on it:

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THE BARON SHITE SESSION

Scott Hadley – piano, voice, drum programming

Arranged by S. Hadley

Recorded 9pm-ish on 20th June 2008

Attempts were made for continuous music. Ill, bored, a little drunk (very slight), this one is not to the best of my ability

1. Heathcliff

2. Baron Shite

3. Lying (for the ladies)

4. Karma Chameleon

5. Don’t Stop Moving

6. All By Myself

7. Unchained Melody

8. Stand By Me

9. Teenage Kicks

10. Back in the USSR

11. Shy Man

12. A work in progress

13. Addiction

14. Drink the Whiskey

15. Love Pen

16. I’m A Prostitute

17. Edward’s Introduction

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This is – digitised and *slightly* improved – the audio from that cassette:

Yes, so…

The cassette contains a selection of original scott [manley] hadley tracks, many of which used to be frequently performed at the open mic nights and awful undergraduate house parties of Cardiff and Warwickshire in the year or so either side of this recording, though some – esp. tracks 2, 12, 13 & 14 – I don’t think ever got a public airing or a finalised recorded form.

There is also a covers medley, because that was fashionable at the time (and thank god it didn’t contain any hip-hop).

Lyrically, these pieces are juvenile and “of their time”, especially the novelty songs discussing sex work towards the end.

It’s not a selection of beautiful music and powerful words. But I (sorry, I mean scott manley hadley) wanted to digitise it for posterity, anyway.

This was a pre-manley scott hadley, an individual ignorantly mere weeks away from probably the single most disastrous event of their life.

But for 25 minutes one long summer evening, with just a dilapidated piano and some digital drums (only on one track), they seemed to find some joy. Some darkness before the storm that was to come…

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Tracks 1, 2, 3, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17 by Scott Hadley

Track 4 by Boy George, Jon Moss, Mikey Craig, Roy Hay, Phil Pickett

Track 5 by Simon Ellis, Sheppard Solomon, S Club 7

Track 6 by Eric Carmen, Sergei Rachmaninoff

Track 7 by Alex North & Hy Zaret

Track 8 by Ben E. King, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller

Track 9 by J.J. O’Neill

Track 10 by Lennon-McCartney

Track 15 by Malaria Colon A Comedy Rock Band

Track 16 by Scott Hadley & XxXxX XxXxXxXxX (anonymised as per prior request)