Jersey musician gets £55,251 grant to find out how to keep Jèrriais alive

Friday 15 April 2016

Musician Kit Ashton has been left “gobsmacked” after winning a grant for a three-year PhD into how music can safeguard and revitalise Jersey’s dwindling native tongue Jèrriais.

Mr Ashton has secured £55,251 worth of funding through the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council to undertake the study with Goldsmiths College in London.

He’s the singer of Badlabecques, who have recorded an album in Jèrriais and who performed a version of the Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends” in the local language at the opening ceremony of the Natwest Island Games last June, alongside local musicians and choirs.

You can find out more about the band here.

Mr Ashton said: “For some reason I had a good feeling about it... but when I found out I was still gobsmacked.

“This is a massive leap forward for me – and hopefully for Jersey culture and Jèrriais too.

“Basically what this means is I can build on the work I’ve started, with new projects and ideas.

“It means I can focus on it full time for the next three years. I’ll be trying to answer two main questions – how does music shape Jersey culture right now, and how can we tap into this to connect people with Jèrriais?

“We are blessed to have our own language, which holds so much significance in our heritage and so much potential to help bring our community together.

“But with fluent Jèrriais speakers getting older, now is the time to decide to embrace Jèrriais and find ways of keeping it alive – otherwise we could lose it forever. Music is one great way of doing that, as we saw at the Island Games Opening Ceremony.”

Badlabecques are playing a free show at The Star in St Peter on Sunday from 8 pm.