A CLEVELAND police officer is heading for success - pounding a beat of a musical kind.

PC Brian McCarthy, aged 35, has been writing songs since he was a teenager but so far his audience has been limited to his wife, Catherine, and their two young daughters.

He now hopes a spur-of-the-moment audition on a train, singing a song dedicated to his wife, will provide the break he needs.

PC McCarthy's impromptu performance for a recording studio executive has led to him producing an album of songs.

The policeman, who lives in Ingleby Barwick, was travelling to London with a guitar he hoped to sell when fate stepped in.

"A woman sat in front of me and she had a leather-bound folder with a Bradford studio name on it," he said. "I was desperate to say something.

"Eventually she asked me what I did and I said I was a singer-songwriter and she told me to send a demo in."

But instead, the officer grabbed his guitar and gave a rendition of Blue Rain, the song inspired by his wife. He thought no-one could hear him because of the noise of the train, but then people started clapping.

The woman asked if he had any songs for boy bands, so PC McCarthy played another number and two girls sitting behind said they would buy it.

He was promptly told to book studio time and shortly afterwards recorded an album of ten songs entitled Elements. He has also sent two numbers off to rock legend Joe Cocker.

"I am now waiting to hear from record label bosses," said PC McCarthy.

In a sign of things hopefully to come, Blue Rain has become the most down-loaded track on an internet site for aspiring artists.