Musician. Born in Glasgow, Vernal played bass for the rock band Deacon Blue, which was named after a Steely Dan song of the 1970s. The band was formed in Glasgow in 1985 by Ricky Ross (b.1957) and comprised Vernal, Graeme Kelling (1957 - 2004) on guitar, vocalist Lorraine McIntosh (b.1964), Jim Prime (b.1960) on keyboards and Dougie Vipond (b.1966) on drums.
Their debut album Raintown (1987) was well-received and followed by others such as When The World Knows Your Name (1989) and Ooh Las Vegas (1990), with a succession of chart-topping hits including Dignity, Fergus Sings the Blues and Real Gone Kid, which made the top-ten in the UK. The band grew to be one of Scotland's best-known acts of the 1980s, but split in 1994. They re-formed to produce further albums; namely Walking Back Home (1999) and Homesick (2001).