Bannister was born in Warrington, then in Lancashire. He joined Coventry City as an apprentice and graduated through their youth team to make his first team debut in May 1978. He made only 22 appearances, scoring three goals in over three years for Coventry City before moving to Sheffield Wednesday in a £100,000 deal in the summer of 1981. Bannister was a crowd favourite at Wednesday, he was top scorer in each of the three seasons he was there with 22 goals in each campaign. In his first season he was voted Player of the Year, and represented England at under-21 level. In 1983–84 he formed a feared partnership with Imre Varadi; the pair scored 41 goals between them as Wednesday returned to the First Divisionfor the first time in 14 years. Bannister never played for Wednesday in Division One as he left to join Queens Park Rangers as a replacement for Clive Allen in the summer of 1984. He enjoyed considerable success at QPR, relishing playing on their "plastic pitch" at Loftus Road. He made 168 appearances, scoring 66 goals in his three and a half seasons with them. Highlights were certainly the two hat-tricks he scored against Chelsea. The first came in the 6–0 demolition of their local rivals on 31 March 1986 at Loftus Road and the second in the 3–1 win on 12 September 1987 also at Loftus Road. He returned to Coventry City in March 1988 in a £300,000 deal. His second spell at Coventry lasted two years and was not a great success as he scored 13 goals in 44 appearances before moving to West Bromwich Albion for £250,000 in March 1990 where he stayed until the summer of 1992, making 66 appearances and scoring 19 goals. Bannister's latter years as a professional included spells at Oxford United, Nottingham Forest, Stoke City, Lincoln City and Darlington before retiring at the end of the 1995–96 season. He also spent one year playing for Hong Kong Rangers. After retiring, he moved to St Ives, Cornwall becoming involved in hotel maintenance and property development. He played for and coached Porthleven in the South Western Football League for several seasons. After about ten years in Cornwall, Bannister and family returned to the Midlands and a job in hotel maintenance in Birmingham.
