Tolo Marton vents: “I played with BB King, now I have no pension”

“Well yes, my life as a musician is getting worse and worse”: thus begins the outburst of Tolo Marton, who shared a message on his Facebook page to describe his current situation and launch an appeal: “There is someone in this country that is interested in being my manager?”.

During his career Marton has had many satisfactions, from collaborations with Ian Paice and Don Airey of Deep Purpleperforming with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, as well as sharing the stage with artists such as Jeff Beck and BB King. Member for a short time of the Venetian prog band de Le Orme with whom he recorded the 1975 album “Smogmagica”.Tolo Marton has also embarked on a solo journey and one of his most famous performances saw him starring on stage at the Jimi Hendrix Electric Guitar Festival in Seattle in 1998, where he won the Voodoo Chile Award. Yet, despite experiences of great respect and various awards, the musician, at 73 years old, declares a reality that is anything but stellar. “I have no pension, my evenings on stage are really too few, but those few always excite the public. Everyone knows me and despite this I work very little”, the artist wrote on social media.

Echoing his outburst on Facebook a few days earlier, in an interview with Marianna Peluso for the “Corriere del Veneto”, Tolo Marton explained: “I am better known in America than in Italy”. He added: “Sometimes even five months pass before I perform. I can’t say I have financial difficulties, but I struggle, especially thinking in perspective: five years ago I sold my house in Treviso and now I am renting it”. And again: “Pension is another sore point: «The INPS doesn’t look at how much money I paid when I was earning well, but counts the number of working days.

So paradoxically, today I would be better off if in my life I had only gone to the piano bar, at minimum wage, every evening. Not me, I never played every night, because I needed to study, write, rehearse.”

During the interview for the local edition of the “Corriere della Sera”, Marton subsequently reflected: “In recent years, music has changed, who makes it and who enjoys it. Now talents offer visibility for a few minutes and in the supermarket you only hear voices distorted by autotune: can you call them artists? It’s all flat, everything the same. But where is the amazement? And the wonder?. Over five hundred people responded to my appealamong fans, people who know me, people who love me. There are some venue managers who have contacted me to arrange dates after the holidays. Obviously I accepted and I’m pleased, but no manager has stepped forward yet. I don’t know how to sell myself, otherwise I know that some songs, like ‘Alpine Valley’ and ‘One more train’, would be prime time on Rai Uno. I don’t want to give up, because I still have a lot to play.”