Artist · chart history
Clinic
Band Crosby United Kingdom Formed 1997 UK rock band
Clinic formed in 1997 in Crosby, United Kingdom. Clinic has 9 chart appearances on 8 radio countdowns from 5 stations on RockLists, spanning 1997–2003. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “The Second Line”, which appears on 2 lists with a best position of #20. The station that charted Clinic most often is John Peel (BBC Radio 1), with 5 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1998.
Clinic came out of Crosby, on the edge of Liverpool, with a gimmick that was also a manifesto: they played in surgical masks and medical outfits, a nod to San Francisco oddballs Crime and the Residents and, as singer Ade Blackburn freely admitted, a cheap pun on the band name. Originally called Pure Morning, the group was Blackburn on vocals, guitar, keyboards and melodica, Jonathan Hartley on guitar, keyboards and clarinet, Brian Campbell on bass and Carl Turney on drums.
The sound was as twisted as the costume: wheezing organs, a clattering garage-rock backbeat, and Blackburn's nasal, half-swallowed voice murmuring over the top like a patient coming round from anesthetic. Early singles like "IPC Sub-Editors Dictate Our Youth", "Cement Mixer" and "Monkey On Your Back" built the buzz, and the band landed at Domino. Internal Wrangler in 2000 was a short, frantic burst of psych rock, with "The Second Line" swinging on a rubbery, voodoo groove. Walking With Thee followed in 2002, spookier and more hypnotic.
After Free Reign in 2012, they vanished for seven years, returning with Wheeltappers and Shunters, the first record Blackburn and Hartley wrote alone. By Fantasy Island, Campbell and Turney were gone, leaving the two masked men to carry on.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Clinic on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Second Line | 2 | #20 | – | 1999 | |
| 2 | Cement Mixer | 1 | #13 | – | 1998 | |
| 3 | IPC Sub-Editors Dictate Our Youth | 1 | #9 | – | 1997 | |
| 4 | Waking Up With Thee | 1 | #88 | – | 2002 | |
| 5 | Walking With Thee | 3 | #69 | – | 2002 | |
| 6 | Monkey On Your Back | 1 | #27 | – | 1998 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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