The name was taken from a keyring belonging to one of the band members, of a small fat purple fish which blew air out when squeezed.
[1] The band started life as a jazz-funk/rap group, and spent the first year performing their own songs in music clubs, mainly in the Brighton area.
[citation needed] In 1997, the band moved towards more explicitly worship-orientated songs, and released their first album, We Know the Story.
Guitarist Alan Rose joined, and the band started writing again, moving away from jazz-funk towards rock.
They made demos with producer Alan Shacklock, and subsequently signed with US label Pamplin, recording their next album, Purple Through the Fishtank, in Nashville in spring 1999.
They recorded three unplugged gigs in the UK in January 2002 for the Hope album, with guests Stuart Townend, Kate Simmonds and Brian Houston; the gigs and album raised money for Hope HIV, a charity supporting AIDS orphans in Africa.
In January 2009, guitarists Ben Hall and Jos Wintermeyer joined Phatfish, and the band returned to the studio to record their album In Jesus, released that summer.
Recorded in their own studio during summer 2011, Higher featured more pop-orientated songs and intimate tracks such as the hymn "And Can It Be".