Hi Ed,
From another forum I had picked up this code that I placed starting on line 200 of the banner.php script
// The line below is for the background image, which must be placed in the same directory as the banner.php script
$baseimg = imagecreatefromjpeg("komokaimage1.jpg");
imagecopy($im,$baseimg,0,0,0,0,$SITE['image_width'], $SITE['image_height']);
You will have to make your own background image that you want to use, and play with the colour as well.
Enjoy,
Paul