Where did it all start?
(By Jonathan Barnes, a founder member of Ladder of Jacob)
Jonathan Toni Nigel
Our neighbour's eldest son taught me some basic guitar chords when I was around ten years old, sufficiently for me to play ‘Wig Wam Bam’ by The Sweet, which both dates me and says a lot about my earliest musical tastes! 🙂
Nigel and I met at a Methodist Church’s Sunday School in Haywards Heath, West Sussex and subsequently its Youth Club, which boasted an uncanny number of budding musicians. With a backdrop of Deep Purple and Wishbone Ash (sorry, still dated) we struck up a musical partnership. Both of us had acoustic guitars and a ‘sound’ emerged between us with interlocking guitar chords and Nigel’s harmony vocals.
We became Christians at a similar time (in our late teens) with a strangely catalytic Easter weekend away in the New Forest featuring in both our journeys to faith. Sadly for me however, the fire burned down to a mere smoulder. Decades went by… My faith, like my guitar (tucked away in a cupboard), gathered dust. Things changed when I hypocritically suggested to a good friend to ‘try a bit of religion’ and agreed to accompany him on an ALPHA course. The twist in the tale was that it was me who was convicted. I was now in my forties.
Two things happened. Firstly, I rejoined church life, and secondly, I dusted down my old guitar. Maybe Christians disingenuously mix coincidence with a divine nudge, but I still feel it wasn’t just coincidence that at the same time, Nigel had for the first time started writing some of his own songs, which mirrored a similar style of Christian-based music.
I first heard Toni (Antonia) sing as a backing vocalist in a worship band at our church. She was temporarily given a space to allow her voice to shine and I knew we had our lead vocalist!
All of the above in one way or another led to the project of recording ‘There’s A Light’, our debut album. A collection of songs written by Nigel and me, and beautifully sung by Toni, with Nigel providing harmony vocals. It was a long process because we were reliant on the wonderful help, time and devoted labour of Nigel’s brother John, who isn’t just an extremely talented multi-instrumentalist (in a band with wife Clare called Dandelion Charm), but also king of his very own recording studio (previously Claire and John's garage!) And so we may be the first ever literal Christian garage band!
We really hope you enjoy the songs we've produced. This website allows for music to be purchased from Spotify and Apple Music, as well as the ordering of CDs. We're also very happy to answer questions you may have about us, the music and our Christian faith. Just write to band@ladderofjacob.net