James Morrison performed for the first time since the tragic death of his ex-partner as he returned to the stage for In It Together Festival last week. 

The singer, 40, was left devastated when Gill Catchpole, with whom he shares two children, was found ᴅᴇᴀᴅ in January 2024 after suffering from mental health issues. 

Though the pair had separated in 2023, they were still living together at their home in Gloucestershire at the time. 

As he prepares to tour again in September, James said it was a ‘joy’ to sing at the music festival in Wales. 

In an update shared to Instagram on Monday, the musician uploaded a pH๏τo of himself on stage. 

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James Morrison performed for the first time since tragic death of his ex-partner as he returned to the stage for In It Together Festival last week

He wrote: ‘What a joy it was to perform at In It Together Festival a few weeks ago. I can’t wait for the tour in September.’

An inquest in June 2024 said James’ found his former partner hanging at her home after finding a note on the front door which read: ‘Don’t come in – call police.’

Gill had also written farewell notes to her two children and her ex-partner before taking her own life.

The 45-year-old mother had suffered from mental health issues for several years and had previously talked about taking her own life, Gloucester Coroner’s Court was told.

James was not present at the inquest, which was attended by Gill’s parents and sister and a number of friends who wept at the back of the court as the evidence into her death was read out by the coroner.

The court was told that a friend had called round to her home in the village of Whitminster, in Gloucestershire, on January 5 to collect her for work.

The friend went next door to contact James – who split from his partner the year before but lived in the same house – to alert him. 

The singer, 40, was left devastated when Gill Catchpole was found ᴅᴇᴀᴅ in January 2024 after suffering with mental health issues (pictured in July 2012)

As he prepares to tour again in September, James said it was a ‘joy’ to sing at the music festival in Wales (pictured in 2022)

Coroner Roland Wooderson said that Ms Catchpole’s GP had been treating her for depression and anxiety since 2012.

James and Gill became engaged in 2006 and wore rings but they never married. 

They first met when he was 17 and she moved into his mother’s home as a lodger with her boyfriend. She became a muse for James, who is famed for his love songs.

James described her as his ‘hero’ and their romance as a ‘little fairytale’, with the тιтle of album You’re Stronger Than You Know inspired by her strength after the premature birth of their daughter Ada.

He said: ‘When she moved in, I started singing all the songs off that album to her. I was playing all of that stuff on the acoustic guitar. 

‘I’m not like: ‘I love romance.’ But I do find certain things romantic and the fact that we met each other the way we did. It’s like a little fairytale or something’. 

Her pᴀssing was yet another tragedy for James, who until his greatest hits album in 2022 had disappeared from the music industry after losing his alcoholic father Paul in 2010 and his elder brother Alexis and nephew Callum within three years.

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