Amy Winehouse’s musical director Dale Davis: "Her observational humour was incredible – she saw things long before you did"

If there are any doubts about Amy Winehouse being a generational talent, they’ll be quelled by the 20th anniversary re-release of her Back To Black album today.

Along with the eleven songs that we all know, love and have grooved along to, there are numerous demos, alternate versions and live tracks which are further testament to her genius.

Accompanying  Amy on a sizeable chunk of her musical journey was Dale Davis, initially the bass-player in her live band and later her musical director.

“Amy was still very young  and Simon Fuller’s management company, 19, wanted some experienced musicians around her,” Dale recalls. “I got my break working with Norman Cook in Beats International, which turned into Freak Power. Then I was with Paul Young for many years, Deborah Harry, Tina Turner… the list goes on.

“Anyway, I heard about this new girl called Amy Winehouse through her first drummer. He asked if I was interested in doing the support tour they had coming up with Annie Lennox; it turns out Simon Fuller had both of them. I went for the audition but didn’t get it because Amy fancied the bass-player before me. He was taller and good looking but he was working with George Michael and Cliff Richard, so as a new artist she couldn’t afford his rates. He did one show with her, and then they called the uglier, cheaper version in – which was me!”

What went through Dale’s head when he heard Amy sing for the first time?

“Before the audition, I was sent a cassette of three songs they wanted me to learn – ‘Stronger Than Me’, ‘Take The Box’ and ‘Love Is Blind’. The lyrics were very cutting and humorous. She just sounded great.”

It was only when he got to the audition that Dale realised he’d encountered Amy before.

“Yeah, I’d seen Amy come into a venue called the 10 Rooms, which later became one of her regular hangouts, when I was playing there,” he recalls. “She was only 18/19 and had a smile that was like a flash of light. You couldn’t not notice her.”

Returning to 2006 and it wasn’t long before Amy’s new-look band was cooking up a storm.

“Within two weeks of me joining, we were at the Notting Hill Carnival which isn’t the easiest place for a young white girl to play,” he recalls. “People started turning up halfway through and by the end of the show the whole square was full. It was then that I realised, ‘Yeah, you’re a real talent.’”

Amy always made it look so effortless – which, of course, it isn’t.

“You’ve hit the nail on the head,” Dale nods. “Amy had such an improvisational approach to music. Rather than preserving herself, she took chances every night and gave it her all which, even if you don’t realise it, is going to take its toll. Some people show their stresses very easily, Amy didn’t.”

Dale and his guitarist bandmate Robert Banerjee provided the stripped-back acoustic accompaniment when Amy paid her legendary December 2006 visit to Other Voices in Dingle.

“It was supposed to be me, Robert, Nathan her drummer, Sam Beste her keyboard-player and Amy going over,  but during the day she went missing in London,” Dale chuckles. “By the time they found her, there was only a three-seater plane available, so that’s how we ended up in Dingle as a trio. Amy didn’t blink an eye, though, because she was just as comfortable being up there on her own with a guitar as she was performing with a full orchestra.”

I got to spend some quality time with Dale and Amy in February 2007 when they flew over for the Meteor Music Awards in the old Point Theatre.

“I did two shows in New York recently – Mos Def who’s one of my all-time heroes was at the first and Jay-Z was at the second,” she breathlessly told me out at the old Four Seasons hotel in D4. “It’s always nice to be supported by people you admire. I don’t know if it’s because of the version of ‘You Know I’m No Good’ that’s come out with Ghostface Killah on it, but a lot of the hip hop community in America seem to know who I am.”

Addressing her reputation for being, er, somewhat over-refreshed when performing, she said: “I’ve knocked the drink on the head a bit ‘cause I was starting to feel like a freak show – y’know, ‘Let’s stick the telly on and see how pissed Amy Winehouse is’. It’s something I worked out for myself. ‘What do you want to be known for, girl, singing good songs or being pissed all the time?’ I’ve not turned into Sting or anything, but it’s nice to be taken a little bit seriously.”

What I also remember from that day was just how fucking funny she was.

“Amy had a mischievous side, that’s for sure!” Dale smiles. “Her observational humour was incredible  – she saw things long before you did and loved having a laugh. No matter what was going on in her life, she’d make you feel special because she always wanted to know about you. She was a very strong character. She was also super-intelligent. What I miss most is Amy’s sparkly eyes and us chatting for hours on end.

“Those awards were just a week before the Brits, which is when everything changed for Amy. Dublin was probably the last of the happy times when there weren’t paparazzi chasing after her. There was a lot of phone tapping back then and general skullduggery from the press who’d do anything to get a story.”

Her tour manager at the time, a grizzled veteran who’d previously roamed the world with Metallica and U2, told me in the Four Seasons how worried he was about Amy.

“If you’re in a band and having a bad day, someone else can bail you out,” Dale reflects. “As a solo artist, though, all the pressure was on Amy. We’d been playing a lot of shows and when the tiredness kicks in, the demons come out.”

History was made in 2008 when Amy won a record five Grammys.

“For her that night was bittersweet,” Dale resumes. “After Amy won the third Grammy, I said ‘Well done!’ and she was like, ‘This is shit because Blake’s in prison.’ That’s when I fully appreciated what was going on for her at the time.”

Dale Davis and Amy Winehouse

Pete Doherty remembers meeting Amy – and her Grammys! – not long after.

“Her and Babyshambles both played at the MTV Awards,” he told me last month. “She turned up with these Grammys sticking out of her purse (Must have been a large purse, Ed). Amy was insistent on me trying my first White Russian, and then danced round the backstage area with a big smile on her face. She was riding a wave and I felt really happy for her.”

Pressed for a favourite Amy tune, Pete said: “‘Tears Dry On Their Own’ really gets you in the stomach. It’s just solid gold R’n’B, isn’t it? Incredible songwriting first of all, and then the musicians she had around her… Amy never put a foot wrong musically.”

Just how badly Amy was struggling with those demons became apparent in June 2011 when she played a car crash of a gig in Belgrade.

“That’s the most difficult night I’ve ever had as a musician,” Dale sighs. “After about twenty minutes, I don’t remember the gig. My body went into shock.”

Despite her chronic alcohol dependency, he says that Amy’s death on July 23, 2011 came as a bolt out of the blue.

“Two nights before she passed, Amy came to see her goddaughter Dionne gigging in the Roundhouse. When she turned up at the side of the stage, I was like, ‘Of course, you live just round the corner.’ Afterwards we hung out and had a laugh, just like we always did.

“My last chat with Amy was three hours before she went to bed for the final time. It was a funny, upbeat conversation which ended with her saying ‘I love you’ and then putting the ’phone down.”

Had she not died, where does Dale think Amy would have headed next musically?

“I always consider her first album, Frank, as a new take on jazz,” he concludes. “With Back To Black she moved into the whole ‘60s girl group thing. She also loved her Minnie Ripperton and the soul of the ‘70s; I think that’s what Amy might have explored next.”

• The Back To Black 20th Anniversary Edition is out now.