IT IS less head-banger, more Nutcracker. Brian Johnson, the gravel-voiced singer with the hard rock group AC/DC, has composed an orchestral piece of music that is being developed for the stage as both a ballet and a West End musical.

Johnson, 55, began writing Helen of Troy as a distraction from performing such heavy metal anthems as Given the Dog a Bone and Rock'n'Roll Ain't Noise Pollution.

The singer, famous for never removing his cap in public, says he got the idea while sitting bored through a production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats.

Music critics who have heard the piece say it is highly promising. "It has a sweep to it with soaring anthems and shrilling crescendos," said one.

Johnson has been holding workshop performances for potential backers at Sir Cameron Mackintosh's Prince Edward Theatre in the West End with Gary Griffin, director of Stephen Sondheim's musical Pacific Overtures.

Dolores O'Riordan, lead singer with the group the Cranberries, may play Helen, who is kidnapped on her wedding night by Paris with the help of Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

At the same time the Sarasota Ballet in Florida, where Johnson has his main home, is planning a dance version for next year's season. Malcolm McDowell, the actor who came to fame in A Clockwork Orange, is likely to play Zeus, who narrates the performance.

The Tyneside-born Johnson, who credits his talent for screaming out rock lyrics to his father, an army sergeant-major, said: "I didn't read Latin at school. Where I went, a secondary modern, we just managed English. But I remembered the stories about the Trojan horse from when I was a boy.

"One day I was sitting through a boring musical and thought: I can do better than this. I thumbed through the programme and there was an advertisement for a bank with gold coins tumbling out of a wooden horse.

"That triggered the idea for Helen of Troy. It was as simple as that. The story has everything: love, war, blood, death, resurrection, gods."

Robert de Warren, artistic director of the Sarasota Ballet and former head of the Northern Ballet in Britain, said: "This is a big departure for Brian, but he has this great ability to create lyrical songs which are so in opposition to his rock. He can compose beautiful melodies."

He added: "I would like Brian to play Helen of Troy's father, King Tyndareus, a non-dancing role. He can wear a crown or a laurel wreath instead of his cap."

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