 For several months in 1969 he was a member of Eero Raittinen's band Help which eventually split up.It was then that Tolonen and drummer Vesa Aaltonen founded the group Tasavallan Presidentti with whom he toured and recorded several albums from 1969–1974.Their third album, "Lambertland", reached number seven on the Finnish charts in 1972, followed by "Milky Way Moses" which peaked at number twelve in 1974.