                                  

                     Page McConnell - keyboards, vocals
                      Trey Anastasio - guitar, vocals
                        Jon Fishman - drums, vocals
                        Mike Gordon - bass, vocals
    --------------------------------------------------------------------

     1983: Inception - Trey, majoring in philosophy, Fish, studying
     chemical engineering, & Mike, with a major in electrical
     engineering, are freshmen at University of Vermont; Jeff
     Holdsworth, also an EE major, is a sophomore there. Trey hears
     Fish playing his drumkit from outside his dorm-room door. He also
     walks by Jeff's room and hears Jeff's '57 Les Paul (guitar). The
     three of them get together and Trey posts a sign: bass player
     needed. Mike answers the sign; they get together for a jam
     session, and Mike says, "Did I make it?"

     They practice in the dorm lounge and make a demo tape. They play
     their first gig as "Blackwood Convention" in the basement of a
     conservative dorm. They use a hockey stick as a mic stand, play
     "Proud Mary" twice, "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress" once, and
     eventually are shut down so that a Michael Jackson tape can be
     played.

     1984: Trey takes the second semester off and records "Bivouac
     Jaun" in his basement; many cuts of this 4-track project mixed
     with Mike's 4-track tapes and a few 4-track-in-the-bedroom tracks
     by the band end up on Phish's first studio project known as "The
     White Phish Tape".

                The first official gig as Phish is played in the
                basement of Slade Hall at UVM in October 1984 (many
     later gigs were also played there); their friend Anne Labruciano
     mixes 6 tracks of stereo sound, playing sound effects through 6
     hidden speakers along with the music.

     Phish's first bar gig is upstairs at Nectar's in December. The
     Dude of Life appears; also Daubs (Marc Daubert) is the band's
     full time percussion player -- he co-wrote "The Curtain" (which
     used to have more words) with Trey.

     1985: Mike's hall-mate Brian Long hooks Mike up with Goddard
     College people to play Goddard Springfest. Page, at Goddard, is
     the organizer. Brian becomes first fan of band, dancing alone
     while Phish plays Thursday nights at Doolins (a frat bar) for
     happy hour. Amy Skelton joins Brian at Doolins.

     Page and Phish like each others' playing at Springfest (Page has
     an R&B band). Page comes for a gig with Phish at the
     Wilks/Davis/Wing dorm barbecue on May 3rd, and he also joins the
     band in Burlington's North End for practices crammed into Fish's
     bedroom; the room is so small that the bed must be taken out
     during practice.

              Trey, Fish and two friends of Trey's from home go to
              Europe and play in the streets with a mini guitar made
     by Paul Languedoc (then at Time Guitars) and percussion during
     the summer. While in Europe, Trey writes You Enjoy Myself, Dog
     Log, the music to Harry Hood, and other songs. Page moves to
     Burlington from Goddard; he and Mike share an apartment. Trey and
     Fish call Mike from Europe to encourage Mike to come, and to
     emphasize that Page should not join the band ("We don't want
     keyboards, Phish is a two guitar band"). Mike stays in
     Burlington, and teaches Page early songs: McGrupp, Fluffhead,
     Slave, etc. Page feels confident that he will be in the band.

     In the fall, Page joins the band. Mike, Page, Fish
     and Brian Long live in a red house next to the
     Harry Hood milk factory. Brian writes the words to "Harry Hood"
     (Mr. A. Minor, a previous tenant, receives letters saying, "Thank
     you, Mr. Minor).

     In November the band plays in the Goddard cafeteria and Mike has
     a peak religious experience.

     1986: With Zenzile, a South African revolutionary, the band plays
     at Hunt's (a local club). Zenzile yells rhetorical poetry.

     Jeff quits the band. He graduates soon after, travels for two
     years, and eventually becomes a born again Christian following
     Jimmy Swaggart. The band continues to do more gigs at Nectar's
     and other bars.

              Mike changes his major from Electrical Engineering to
              Filmmaking & Communications. Trey and Fish transfer to
     Goddard College (Page makes $50 for recruiting each of them). On
     October 15th, Paul does the band's sound for the first time, at
     Hunt's; 169 people attend.

     1987: Mike graduates. Trey and Marley live in a cabin with no
     electricity and no running water for the summer, and Trey writes
     "Fee" as well as a second section to "The Curtain" (called "The
     Curtain With") which eventually becomes Rift. Trey continues to
     work with his mentor/composing teacher Ernie Stires, getting
     academic credit through Goddard, writing fugues and big band
     arrangements ("Flat Fee") which end up in Phish songs.

     1988: The first Oh Kee Pah Ceremony takes place in the spring.

     In August, Phish is promised a two week tour booked by club owner
     Warren Stickney. Though Warren never calls back, the band drives
     from Vermont to Telluride, Colorado, to play in Warren's bar.

     Junta is recorded in Boston and sold at shows as a tape.

     1989: In April, Phish participated in the Rock & Roll Rumble at
     the Front. Fish lowered himself, naked, from the rafters, to
     begin his vaccuum solo, but it wasn't plugged in.

     In August, the second Oh Kee Pah Ceremony occurs (source of Union
     Federal).

     For their first show at the Paradise in Boston, the
     venue is rented by the band since the club didn't feel
     they'd do well enough to book them for a show. Many
     friends come from Burlington by bus. 650 people sell out the
     club, with 200 more outside.

     Also this year, the band embarks on their first mini-tour into
     the SouthEast. Lawn Boy is recorded at Dan Archer's studio in
     Winooski, Vermont (with some free recording time from winning
     that Rock & Roll Rumble) and released on Absolute A-Go-Go (an
     independent label distributed by Rough Trade).

     1990: In the spring, Phish tours Colorado, returning to play the
     Strand Theatre in Boston at the end of April, and continuing with
     three more weeks of shows in the Northeast and a trip through the
     South before taking some time off to practice and write songs.
     (Before the fall, soundboard audio-taping patches are
     discontinued due to essential equipment having been unplugged by
     tapers attempting to tap in.)

     Lawn Boy is released in September, and the band tours some more
     through the Fall. Late in the year, the Phish.Net, an Internet-
     based alliance of Phish fans, begins to coalesce. New Year's Eve
     is observed at the World Trade Center in Boston.

     1991: There are no shows in January, but from the beginning of
     February through May, Phish tours in the Northeast, Southeast
     (including a few shows with the Aquarium Rescue Unit), Colorado,
     the West coast, the Midwest, and in the Northeast again.

     The remainder of May and June are spent recording at White Crow
     Studios in Burlington. The band adds a horn section, "The Giant
     Country Horns" (Carl Gerhard, Dave Grippo, and Russell
     Remington), for a jaunt in July, and occasionally thereafter.
     Toward the end of the summer, the band spends a couple weeks at
     White Crow recording with the Dude of Life.

              Amy's Farm is a successful free outdoor show at Amy
              Skelton's horse farm in Auburn, Maine, in early August.
     During the remainder of August Phish goes back into the studio to
     mix the new material. Rough Trade goes out of business and Lawn
     Boy (temporarily) goes out of print.

     Elektra signs the band in late November; most of the time from
     mid-September through the end of the year is spent touring.

     1992: New Year's is held at the Auditorium in Worcester,
     Massachusetts. A Picture of Nectar is released on February 18th
     by Elektra, and Phish begins a national tour in March, including
     dates in the Pacific Northwest in late April, the upper midwest
     in early May and the Northeast in mid-May, wrapping up at the
     Flynn Theatre in Burlington.

     After one month off, in June and July the band tours in Europe,
     opening for Violent Femmes; they then continue July with four
     shows on the first HORDE tour, and from the end of July into
     August they play at large outdoor amphitheatres supporting
     Santana.

     Elektra re-releases Lawn Boy on June 29th and Junta in late
     summer. In September and October Phish goes back into the studio
     to record Rift with Barry Beckett (the first time they've worked
     with a producer). There is additional touring following this
     toward the end of the year.

     1993: The New Year is ushered in at Matthews Arena in Boston. On
     February 2nd Rift is released, and Phish tour throughout the
     country from February into May.

     After a couple months of practicing and writing, the band
     hits the road again between mid-July and late August. To
     accommodate audience recording, designated taping areas begin to
     be created directly behind the soundboard and tapers' tickets are
     made available via mail-order. The Phish Newsletter becomes the
     Döniac Schvice (for obvious reasons).

     Phish spends the fall recording Hoist in Los Angeles (including
     guests Bela Fleck, Allison Krauss, the Tower of Power horn
     section and Jonathan Frakes); the band ends the year with a short
     holiday tour culminating in the New Year's Eve concert at the
     Centrum in Worcester, featuring a giant clam.

     1994: Hoist is released on March 29th, and Mike directs a video
     for the single track "Down with Disease" (this is Phish's only
     studio- style video). Mike also directs and edits a documentary
     of the process of recording Hoist, entitled Tracking.

              The band then embarks on a national tour, continuing
              through mid-July. The G-Crew (short for the Green
     Crew), a volunteer coalition of Phish fans dedicated to
     minimizing the environmental impact of the crowds coming to
     shows, becomes a welcome presence in the parking lots. (If you
     want to find them, check at the Greenpeace table.)

     Crimes of the Mind, the album recorded with the Dude of Life back
     in 1991, is released on October 25th.

     In the fall Phish tour again; the "musical costume" tradition is
     established when the band solicits input from the fans and as a
     result plays the Beatles' White Album in its entirety as the
     second set of their three-set Halloween concert in Glens Falls,
     New York (concluding some time after 2 am). The tour continues
     through the end of the year, and is captured throughout on
     multi-track recording in preparation for the upcoming live album.

     1995: 1995: Phish greets the New Year at the Boston
     Garden with assistance from Mike's grandmother as well
     as a giant hot-dog in which they fly, playing, across the Garden
     to the "cheap seats".

     "A Live One" (double CD recorded live, the Clifford Ball, 1994)
     is released on June 27th and the band goes back on the road in
     June and July; mail-order tickets now become available for
     regular seats as well as tapers. The fall tour commences on the
     west coast and the Halloween tradition continues with a
     performance by popular request of the Who's Quadrophenia at the
     Rosemont Horizon in Chicago.

     1996: Fish is transformed into the baby New Year by a mad
     scientist at Madison Square Garden. The band goes into the studio
     in late February and begins recording a self-produced Blob of
     music. At the end of March they take a month off and appear at
     JazzFest in New Orleans on April 26th. They then return to the
     studio and can the Blob (except for two mintues); Steve
     Lillywhite joins them in the studio to produce the album.

     At the beginning of July they head to Europe, playing some shows
     with Santana and others on their own, and in August they return
     to the US for 11 shows culminating with the Clifford Ball, a
     festival dedicated to the legendary aviator. The album, "Billy
     Breathes" is released on October 15th and the band begins a 35
     show US tour beginning in the East and including a stop at The
     Omni in Atlanta for the traditional Halloween concert. This
     year's "musical costume" is the band's choice: The Talking Heads'
     "Remain in Light". The band welcomes special guest percussionist
     Karl Perazzo for four shows, and the fall tour wraps up at the
     Aladdin Theatre in Las Vegas with yodelers and multiple Elvi.

     1997: The band ushers in the new year at Boston's Fleet Center
     amidst a sea of falling balloons. In February and March, they
     return to Europe and to intimate clubs and theatres to play 14
     headline shows. On March 18, Phish joins Ben and Jerry on Ben's
     birthday for a show at the Flynn Theatre in Burlington to benefit
     Lake Champlain cleanup and to celebrate the release of Ben and
     Jerry's new flavor, Phish Food. The band ventures again to Europe
     in June and July, for another 18 headline shows and outdoor
     festivals, with plans to follow up with a 19-show US tour in July
     and August.
