TINA LAWTON .... continued
In mid-1967 she left Adelaide for the last time, booked for a concert tour of Singapore, Malaysia, Bangkok, Manila and Vietnam. At the end of July, when she reached Saigon, her contract broke down and she was left stranded without money, accommodation or work. 
Instead of returning home, however, she accepted a contract with the US Army to undertake a military hospital tour of the Pacific region that would begin in Vietnam and take in Japan, the Philippines, Bangkok and Guam. It was an exhausting tour, both physically and emotionally, and by the time she returned to Saigon in October her voice was in dire need of a rest.
From South-east Asia Tina flew, via India, to Europe where she traveled through Greece and Italy before heading to England. In London she made the decision to go north to Glasgow to continue her studies in art that had been interrupted when she left Australia. Arriving in Glasgow in December 1967, she enrolled as a fourth year student in the Printmaking Section of the Department of Graphic Design at the Glasgow School of Art.
She settled into life in Glasgow and immersed herself in her studies. Music during this time definitely 'took a back seat'. Indeed, her mother remarked that “during those twelve months in Glasgow, only a few close friends even knew that Tina could sing.” Her experiences in Vietnam had resulted in a re-evaluation of her life and recognition of deeper realities than the superficial glamour of the entertainment world. Though she retained her love of singing, she found that the maturity she had gained over the past year had now given her something to “say” through her art and she meant to pursue this. She was determined, recalled her mother, to not again become “so involved in singing that she might not complete her Art course.”
Nevertheless, she did make a number of public performances during her time in Britain. After being persuaded to sing at a charity concert at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow, she was approached by Scottish Television to participate in a new show to be produced in Edinburgh. In this she was able to sing and design the graphics that accompanied her performance. The BBC also approached her for occasional television and radio work and she fielded offers of some local 'live' club work. But, despite this interest and the occasional social contact with professional folksingers like Nina & Frederick and Peter, Paul & Mary, she resolutely resisted the temptation to return to “the rat-race of show-biz”.
