SOLICITOR Alan Lewis has been revealed as a recording star heard by millions.

In his spare time Mr Lewis who works for Keoghs in Bolton, swaps the dry world of employment law for the magic of the brass band movement.

He performed as assistant principal cornet with the famous Black Dyke Mills band during the recording at the BBC in Manchester which produced the theme and incidental music for the BBC programme Groundforce -- the one which features Alan Titchmarsh and Charlie Dimmock.

"The Groundforce recording was something I did with a couple of days' notice when a playing colleague asked me to help Black Dyke out," Mr Lewis said.

"I had heard of the programme before, but did not know the music.

"The recording was of a new set of arrangements for brass, compared with the previous woodwind version.

"The recording was also filmed with a view to producing a programme about the making of the series, but I have heard nothing more about this yet."

Mr Lewis and his wife Donna, who plays solo horn, have recently signed up for the Leyland Band.

In 1989 they were members of the Swinton Concert Band which won its category in the British Open Brass Band Championships.

Experts say that Mr Lewis could have become a professional trumpet player if he had not chosen the legal profession.

"I was offered one of only two places on the graduate course at the Royal Northern College of Music for trumpet players," he said.

"However, my ambitions were to achieve one of the rare trumpet seats in one of the UK's very few professional symphony orchestras.

"Whilst I am confident that I could have attained the standard, you really have to be in the right place at the right time when the present incumbent of one of these seats decides to call it a day or retire."

So he read law at university and now works for Keoghs at its new headquarters building in The Parklands, opposite the Reebok Stadium.

Mr Lewis and Donna live with their three children -- Amy, nine, Daniel, seven and Brooke,16 weeks, in Whitefield, Manchester.

He added: "The programme and its music get lots of air play.

"It's a pity that I am not entitled to royalties, otherwise I may have been able to retire early."