IAIN Banks, the acclaimed Scottish novelist, has thrown his creative abilities into a project by a Chester rock band.

Martin Ellis, owner of The City Bar, has acted as promoter and manager for The LP, a Chester- based five-piece outfit.

Earlier this year he saw the band get a record deal with Japanese label Vinyl Junkie.

In the meantime, he has been working with his life-long friend Gary Lloyd, an established composer and producer from Hoole.

It was Gary who got the British writer involved having worked with him on a side project to his rock ’n’ roll novel Espedair Street.

Martin said: ‘They’ve put together a 35-second orchestral introduction.

‘I wanted a break in the middle of the album that was something like David Bowie had in Heroes when Brian Eno was doing an interlude.’

Gary adds: ‘Iain is not an instrumentalist but he has the gift of being able to come up with a melody.

‘He listened to The LP song we wanted and he picked out a ‘top line’ or main melody which I then orchestrated.’

Martin is eager to get the young band he has mentored to demonstrate real depth. And he said: ‘If the likes of Iain Banks are going to stick their name to it, then it shows they’re a bit more cerebral than the average band.’

Last night the group recorded a video at the back of the Pepper Street car park with the same production team that recorded Kasabian’s Jersey Live.

And this week Martin and Gary are putting the final mix together before sending the album off to Japan for production.