007 Travelers report: Teatteri STATE: Sami Hintsanen & Capri & For Your Ears Only / New Year Eve's Party with James Bond theme

What: Sami Hintsanen & Capri & For Your Ears Only / New Year Eve's Party with James Bond theme
Where: Teatteri STATE, Tampere, Finland
When: 31 December 2015, starting at 18.00
Price: Show & Dinner 79,50 EUR

Thank you:
Sales Manager Päivi Kautto-Koskinen
Sales Representative Tiina Nuutero
Sales Representative Jenni-Maria Vartiainen
Our waitress Miia and other staff of Teatteri STATE
Sami Hintsanen & For Your Ears Only & Capri

007 Travelers recommends visiting Teatteri STATE!

007 Travelers arrived in Tampere, at Teatteri STATE just before 18.00.
The entrance of the theater on Hämeenkatu is dashing.

Teatteri STATE at Hämeenkatu 30

According to history of the building, architect Bertel Strömmer designed real estate company Tuulensuu at the beginning of 1920's. It was the biggest multi-storey building of its time in Tampere. They built cinema, which started under the name "Tuulensuu" 18th of August 1929. Theater STATE has started its activities here on February 2015.

Friendly staff welcomed us in the lobby. We took a look at the premises which were splendid.

Bar Piccolo is located in the lounge.

Bar Piccolo

We were guided in the great hall, where we were escorted to the table number 22, which was set up for us near the stage.

Pirita & Mika / 007 Travelers

The attentive staff showed us the loft upstairs, where we got an excellent understanding of the premises and its luxury.

There are meeting rooms on the upper floor. Booking and more information in Finnish here.

Meeting room "Strömmer"

Next to the table there are buttons for calling the waitress, for ordering or for bill. The waitress has a pager on her belt, and it receives the signals from the customers. Our waitress was Miia, thank you a lot for expertise and customer service!

They began serving a little after 18, and the fish menu was this time the choice of 007 Travelers.

FISH MENU

Starters: Artichoke-carrot pate, parsley cream and gooseberry jam

Main course: Pike perch-filled salmon, carrot, fennel, potato purée and lobster sauce flavored with saffron

Dessert: Mocatta, buckthorn melba and roasted white chocolate

We chose to drink red wine with the dinner: Justo Rosso Gerardo Cesari, Italy (8,40€ / 16cl).

During the break of the show, we had a drink called Sinko (a´ 6,50€), 2cl One Star Jaloviina, 2cl Amaretto and apple flavor. We had cherry in the drink. 

Sinko drinks

Other menu options:

Meat menu: Beef Serrano, honey root vegetables, parsnip potato terrine, cherry sauce and cherries.

Photo: Teatteri STATE

Vegetable menu: Roots Wellington, boletus spelt, kale and cranberries.

Photo: Teatteri STATE

At 19.37 it started to happen: The band For Your Ears Only entered the stage and started to play "James Bond Theme" (1963), originally performed by John Barry Orchestra, from the first Bond movie "Dr. No" (1962). After this the star of the evening Sami Hintsanen showed up and wished a happy new year and we toasted with our glasses with him in order to salute the changing year. 

Sami Hintsanen is a musician and an actor from Tampere. He was the host of "Tartu Mikkiin" tv entertainment show. In addition, Hintsanen is a karaoke and pop song Finnish Champion.

Sami Hintsanen (on the left) & the band For Your Ears Only

Hintsanen told some history of the Bond theme songs and movies, and on the screen we saw related trailers of the movies during the songs. First we heard a song "From Russia with Love" (1963), which Hintsanen presented us magnificently. The song is originally performed by John Barry (title sequence), and Matt Monro (vocal version heard during the film and closing credits).

After this the female star of the night, Capri (Päivi Selo), entered the stage. She started as a pop singer in Finland and is also member of a cover band. She is the vocalist of the Finnish symphonic power metal band Amberian Dawn, which she joined in 2012.

Capri

We could hear Capri´s great voice in Shirley Bassey´s song "Goldfinger" (1964), after that Hintsanen sang "Thunderball" from year 1965. The song was originally performed by Tiger of Wales, Sir Tom Jones. It was again Capri´s turn, next song was "You Only Live Twice" (1967). The original performer is Nancy Sinatra. 

After this the orchestra played an instrumental version of The John Barry Orchestra´s "On Her Majesty´s Secret Service" (1969). Next Capri´s bright version of "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971). (Shirley Bassey)

007 Travelers shot a video of Hintsanen´s great version of Paul McCartney & Wings´ song "Live and Let Die" (1973), and we got chills in a good way. For Your Ears Only band was introduced to the audience after that song.

It was good to continue from here with Capri´s version of  Lulu´s song "The Man with the Golden Gun" (1974), and before that Hintsanen asked: Who was supposed to perform this song originally? The correct answer Alice Cooper, but the audience did not know that. Of course 007 Travelers did not shout the right answers. The right ones Hintsanen rewarded with beers. Other questions by Hintsanen were: Who has performed Bond theme song more than once? The correct answer: Shirley Bassey three times: "Goldfinger" (1964), "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971) ja "Moonraker" (1979) and who was James Bond in the film "The Living Daylights"? (1987) The correct answer: Timothy Dalton. These questions were known by the audience.

Next in order would have been these Bond theme songs:  "Nobody Does It Better" (Carly Simon) which is a title song for Bond film "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977) and the song "Moonraker" (Shirley Bassey) from the film with same name "Moonraker" (1979), but we did not hear them because the stars of the evening did not like those songs.

Instead, we heard Capri´s version of "For Your Eyes Only" (1981), originally performed by Sheena Easton, and the title song "All Time High" (Rita Coolidge) from the film "Octopussy" (1983), after that was a little break.

After the break Hintsanen performed such great versions of the songs: Duran Duran´s "A View to a Kill" (1985) from a movie with the same name "A View to a Kill" and A-ha´s  "The Living Daylights" (1987) from the film with same name "The Living Daylights", and especially the latter has an adaptation which we think was really cool! They did not perform Lani Hall´s song "Never Say Never Again" (1983) from the film with same name "Never Say Never Again". Then Capri sang 3 songs in a row: Gladys Knight´s "Licence to Kill" (1989), Tina Turner´s "GoldenEye" (1995) and Sheryl Crow´s "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997).

We did not hear Garbage´s song "The World Is Not Enough" (1999) or Madonna´s "Die Another Day" (2002) since Hintsanen does not like them, but instead we heard his great version of Chris Cornell´s "You Know My Name", which is the title song of the film "Casino Royale" (2006). Some theme songs inspired people to dance on the floor, and this was one of them.

Then Hintsanen and Capri gave us a really cool duet, they sang "Another Way to Die", which is the title song for the movie "Quantum Of Solace" (2008). The duet was originally performed by Jack White & Alicia Keys.

Evening had come to the stage where Capri performed Adele´s song "Skyfall", which is of course the title song for the film with same name: "Skyfall" (2012). The song got huge applause from the audience. The grand finale: Hintsanen sang "Writing´s On The Wall", originally performed by Sam Smith. This song is a title song for the latest Bond movie "SPECTRE" (2015). This was just super! After the gig we told Hintsanen that his version is even better than the original version, if possible. 

007 Travelers met Sami Hintsanen on the backstage after the gig, and we got a private interview. What Hintsanen told us......stay tuned, the interview coming up soon! 

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