Band That Formed In Andover To Be Featured In Documentary

ANDOVER, MA -- They recorded the greatest album you have never heard, and now they will be featured in a documentary set for release later this year. And they got their in the 1960's at Philips Academy in Andover, where all six members were students living in Bishop South.

Rising Storm was formed in 1967 and even recorded an album while still in school. But the members didn't know that album -- "Calm Before" -- was a cult classic until long after they thought their playing days were over. In 1981 rock historian Richie Unterberger wrote that the album was ""one of the rarest and most respected garage band albums" in the music magazine Allmusic. Unterberger would later write a chapter about Rising Storm in his 1998 book, Unknown Legends of Rock 'n' Roll.

Today, original copies of the album can fetch as much a $7,000 on the collectibles market. The band reunited after Unterberger's article appeared and they continue to get together to perform and rehearse their brand of music, which has been labeled as both folk rock and garage rock.

The documentary will also be called "Calm Before." Drummer Tom Scheft told the Phillipian, the student newspaper at Phillips Academy, that he worked on the film with the director, who he knew from summer camp. The other band members are Tony Thompson on lead vocals and guitar, Bob Cohan on guitar, Todd Cohen ’on bass, keyboardist Charlie Rockwell and Richard Weinberg on guitar and vocals.

"The documentarian got in touch with us about three years ago because he wanted us to be the subject of his movie," Thompson told the newspaper. "We had to reach an agreement with him because he wanted us to have some creative control, but we were not interested in making a vanity film. We didn’t want it to be an advertisement. So we said no, and we would only consider it if he had total creative control."

The band recorded albums in 1983 and 1999, but none got the cult following that came with "Calm Before." A June 2017 performance at the 50th reunion of the Phillips Academy class of 1967 was featured in a New York Times feature article.

For more on this story, see the Phillipian. Subscribe to Andover Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.

Photo by The Rising Storm.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).