Ian Rankin, author of the famed Rebus series, has performed backing vocals for Edinburgh-based band St Jude’s Infirmary.
The writer is a big fan of the band and introduced them to Scottish artist Jack Vettriano, who is the subject of a song on their first album.
Not only did Vettriano produce art work for the band’s album cover, but both Rankin and Vettriano guest starred as backing vocalists on the album.
“[Vettriano’s] are terrific, he is a Scottish Leonard Cohen,” said Rankin, who also wrote lyrics for the last track of the album.
Away from the Rebus series, which established the author as one of Scotland’s great novelists, Rankin is currently working on a new novel which incorporates similar themes.
“It’s called ‘The Complaints’, because ‘the complaints’ is the slang term for the police who investigate other police, so it’s internal affairs,” he said.
When not singing or writing his new novel, Rankin is currently writing a one-off comic book for DC Comics, home of Batman and Watchmen.
