| Panel of Judges | |
| Background: | group_or_band |
| Origin: | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Genre: | Indie rock |
| Years Active: | 1998 - present |
| Label: | Chapter Music Gothic Pharaoh Records Mistletone Weather Records |
| Website: | Official Site |
| Current Members: | Dion Nania Alison Bolger Paul Williams Martin Frawley[1] |
| Past Members: | Michael Nichols |
Panel of Judges is an indie rock band from Melbourne, Australia. Dion Nania began the group in 1997 as a solo project, then added Alison Bolger, Michael Nichols and Paul Williams soon afterwards.
Nania, originally from Geelong, had played with the Golden Lifestyle Band; Bolger, originally from Brisbane, had played bass in Clag and Sleepy Township and in looser configurations such as an improvisational group with Mia Schoen and Ellen Turner; Williams had been a member of Perth group Molasses and, in the early days of Panel of Judges was also drumming in Melbourne band Jaguar is Jaguar; and Nichols had been a formative figure in the Hanshalf Trio in Melbourne, Crabstick and Blairmailer in Sydney, and the 'travelling' group Ruff Buff.
Panel of Judges' first release was an EP, Blind as a Bat on Chapter Music in 1998; their debut album Cool Fool was released later that year after which Nichols left and the band continued as a three-piece. They travelled to Europe in 2002, playing in London and Paris, and returned in 2004 to record their second album No Scandal - No Future - In Heaven, the title of which was 'stolen from a card left on Serge Gainsbourg's grave'. They have since toured Japan and New Zealand; their third album, Bad Vibrations was released on Mistletone in late 2008.