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The picture can be found on the cover of The Phish Book.

About Phish

In the beginning, there were no Phish, but the thought about a long-term band committment was apparent. This brought upon the Phish, and the phans, and so on. It all began with Trey, who was working hard at trying to fulfill his musical eduacation at UVM, stating things such as "The [music] department was geared towards creating music teachers rather than musicians." It all started with Trey...        Trey began as an A.M. radio jockie for the "Ambient Alarm Clock" at UVM, which drove his musical passions further by getting him into the style of music that he now has grown to play from. While at UVM, Trey composed music with Ernie Stires, who was his mentor, and his study parnter there and at Goddard University.

     The next band member to join Trey was Jeff Holdsworth in 1983, a sophmore at UVM who was majoring in electrical engineering. This was while Trey was still a freshman at UVM. In a way, the two of them became the fuse of Phish, waiting to be lit.

Within the same year of meeting Jeff, Trey met Jon Fishman, who was at the time studying chemical engineering. They met by fate, for it was Jon's loud sounds coming from his drums that enticed Trey to introduce him to Jeff.

When Trey entered his sophomore year at UVM, he started looking for a bassist, and went on a search for talent. He hung flyers all over campus, in search for a bass guitarist. Mike Gordon, who was studying for a major in electrical engineering, came to this call, and became the permanent bass guitarist for what would later be called Phish.

     Trey: "Jeff Holdsworth had been in good bands during high school and was the most experienced and competent of us by far. He had an incredible bluesy voice and real stage presence that could knock you out right away. He was a grounding force, while Mike and I were more off-kilter.
     We didn't know any songs when we played our first gig at the UVM ROTC party [10/30/83] and had a week to come up with an entire repertoire. It ended up being all songs that Jeff knew, like 'Long Cool Woman,''Proud Mary,'and 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine,' which he also sang. But I wanted to do original stuff from the beginning, and he wasn't into it."
     Before Page found the band, there was another member within the band (not Phish), named Marc "Daubs" Daubert. Marc played with them in basements and common rooms on the Redstone Campus, and later playing at the Last Elm Cafe. Marc co-wrote "The Curtain," and brought out "The White Album." Within this short time before Page came, Phish became advertised for playing Grateful Dead music. The first Phish gig was held before Page came in May of 1985. He came without warning.

Page was going to Goddard College in North Vermont, taking part as the organizer for the annual Springfest there. A friend of Mike's, Brian Long (a.k.a. "the phirst phan"), connected Mike with Page, then allowed him to book Phish along with the Springfest. After the gig, Page introduced himself to the band, and told them that he wanted to join them. His first gig with them was on May 3, 1985 at a barbeque (the UVM "Last Day Party"). Unfortunately at the time, Trey and Jon, the two major members of the band, stated that there was no use for a keyboardist in their band.

     Trey: "After Page joined in '85, an awkward period ensued during which we knew the four of us would go forward as a band, and he [Jeff] would eventually be out. But we had to keep doing gigs with five people. We definitely had a bad onstage vibe for a while."

     So at this time, there were five members of Phish: Jeff, Mike, Trey, Jon, and Page. In the end, Jeff left making a career decision. When he graduated from UVM, he supposidly "found God." He was heard to state that Phish was playing the devil's music, and he left the group. This was the true beginning of Phish, where no one would leave, or join.