Dame Kiri triggers gun drama as she checks in at hotel

The Telegraph ^ | December 6, 2003 | Auslan Cramb

[pbear8]

Dramatic entrances are the stock in trade of the opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, but the flap caused by her arrival at a city centre hotel must have surprised even her.

The Maori soprano unwittingly spread consternation among staff at the Holiday Inn Theatreland in Glasgow when she asked to be directed to the hotel's "gun store". This, she declared, was where she would like to store her firearms during her stay.

Even if Glasgow was recently identified as the "murder capital" of Britain, its hotels are not normally asked by guests to store guns.

The manager told Dame Kiri, 59, that he would have to contact the police to let them know there were firearms on the premises, and two officers arrived quickly.

They found that the singer and her male companion had two shotguns with them, which they planned to use on a short shooting holiday in the Scottish countryside.

In other parts of the world, a guest who asks for the gun store would not be treated as having made a strange request. But Dame Kiri was told that very few urban hotels in Britain offered such a service. The police checked her firearms licence, and when they found that everything was in order they asked her to accompany them to the nearby Stewart Street police station, which has been used in the past to hold terrorists.

She deposited the shotguns there for safe keeping and, after breakfast at the hotel on Wednesday, she returned to the station to pick them up. Dame Kiri's agent said she was now enjoying a shooting break in the Scottish hills.

An enthusiastic country sportswoman, and an expert clay pigeon shooter, she has frequented the Gleneagles Shooting School at Gleneagles Hotel in the past. A member of staff yesterday described her as "very good shot".

A spokesman for the Holiday Inn said the affair had been resolved amicably and the hotel had parted with its guest on the best of terms.

She added: "I don't think any guest had ever asked us to store guns. It was unusual to say the least.

"When she arrived she asked for the duty manager and said she was in Scotland on a hunting holiday and had her own guns with her, and wanted to know if we had a gun store. It was a highly unusual request for a city centre hotel.

"The hotel followed procedures and contacted the police about guns being declared. They were taken into store and after breakfast we parted on good terms. She has stayed with us on a number of occasions but this was the first time she had brought her guns."

A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said "advice and assistance" was given after a call from the hotel. "It caused quite a flap, but all necessary documentation for the firearms was provided and we stored them for security purposes until they were uplifted."

Dame Kiri, who is also a keen golfer and angler, said in a recent interview that she shot "clay pigeons and bunnies, that sort of thing".

She added that she loved wildlife, but not vermin, and tried to keep down "the bush rats and the possums".

Her shooting partners in the past have included Prince Philip, the Prince of Wales and Jackie Stewart, the former racing driver. She performed at the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1981, and was made a Dame of the British Empire a year later.

Nick Grace, Dame Kiri's agent, said she could not be contacted yesterday. She was, he explained, "out shooting".

[pbear8]

I'm not sure why I even see this as a story?

Because it looks as though Basil Fawlty runs this particular Holiday Inn.

[Molly Pitcher]

Ha, ha! Good for her! My already high estimation of her just went even higher.

[Ramius]

But then it would have at been *funny*.

Basil Fawlty would have *lost* the shotguns and/or would have taken them out shooting or would have shot his insufferable wife with one. Or maybe the spanish porter... he'd certainly have done in the porter.

[Ramius]

at been? Lord... help me.

"at *least* been".

[JRandomFreeper]

It would have been better if she would have just taken them to her room and not asked...

I certainly don't expect to leave expensive jewelry on the nightstand when I visit a hotel, I would ask for it to be placed in the safe. Same thing with $12,000 Italian shotguns. I want them locked up. More securely than the jewelry, since they're more useful.

/john

[pbear8]

OK, so they didn't write about what happened before she asked about the gun locker...the part where Prince Charles thanks her for the millionth time for singing at his wedding to Diana and so Camilla hits him over the head and then he gets rotten care under Nation Health, and because of that he calls Tony Blair who tells him to blow it out hi ear because he has more important things to think about - like a war in Iraq, then Tony asks Kiri (who we know is a crack shot) to take charge of the British troops in Iraq and teach them to shoot too. Meanwhile, Camilla is sorry that she busted Charles over the head and goes to cry on Kiri's shoulder, but she can't locate her as Kiri is out shooting and so Camilla reports Kiri as missing to Scotland Yard and they ask Basil Fawlty to send the Spanish waiter to check on Kiri who has gone to the local police station to put up her guns for the night.

They left that part out.

[RonF]

What CD is that?

[Savage Beast]

"It caused quite a flap".

Well--there is nothing like a dame.

I wonder if Kiri knows the song.

[Frank_2001]

I love her!!!

[xp38]

There is definitely snow in the mountains of New Zealand. It shows up in the Lord of the Rings movie.

[secret garden]

You type Eenglish very well. Did you learn it from a book?/Manuel the porter
;)

[pbear8]

OK, but do they have guys long very long Alpine horns running around yelling, "Riiiiiiiiiicola"?

[lambo]

Nobody's wondering what the heck Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is doing staying at a Holiday Inn?

By the way, the Basil Fawlty comments in other posts are particularly apt because, if I recall correctly, the hotel upon which Fawlty Towers was based (the Pythons had stayed there) was called the Gleneagles. Either that, or the hotel used for the series' exterior shots was the Gleneagles. (Not this Holiday Inn, though.)

[pbear8]

It is frightening to think that the Holiday Inn might be the most desireable hotel in the area,isn't it?

[lambo]

Even more frightening to think it's not, but that Dame Kiri is so down on her luck.

[pbear8]

No way, all she has to do is stand out on the street of any major city and sing a bit and then pass the hat. She'd do quite well and would easily be able to stay someplace nicer than a Holiday Inn.

[lambo]

You'd think, wouldn't you? Maybe I should check out the five-star Glasgow Holiday Inn.

[xp38]

Ok perhaps Ricola is necessary. Meanwhile here is the website for the hotel http://www.higlasgow.com/ Seems to be rated 4 star. Perhaps location may have determined this choice over some other higher class place.

[pbear8]

OK, I Googled it and the best internet rate that I could find for my birthday at the Glasgow Holiday Inn is 93 pounds ($161.00)for a double bed. When was the last time you tried to put two people in a double bed?? Hey there's a penthouse suite for 220 pounds. Perhaps a double over there is king size...I doubt it though.