Melbourne Ska Orchestra

The Melbourne Ska Orchestra was created by musician Nicky Bomba and radio presenter Mohair Slim. The band's inaugural performance was on 31 May 2003 to a sold out crowd at The Esplanade Hotel's Gershwin Room, in St Kilda.^{[citation needed]}

The eponymous Melbourne Ska Orchestra album was released to rave reviews in 2013 and picked up two ARIA nominations that year.^[1]

The band have toured extensively,, including festival appearances at Bluesfest, Golden Plains, Vivid, Caloundra, Queenscliff, and AWME. In addition to touring in Australia, the band has built an overseas fan base.^[2] The band sold out their debut London show, appeared on the bill for the Glastonbury Festival and played a headline set to a crowd 50,000 at the Montreal Jazz Festival during their 2014 tour.^[3] The band has performed in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, USA, Canada, and Turkey, and has appeared in television commercials in Australia and Japan.^{[citation needed]}

The band released their second album Sierra Kilo Alpha in April 2016, embarking on a national tour to support it.^[4] Sierra Kilo Alpha won the 2016 ARIA Award for Best World Music Album.^[5] The band released a follow-up called Saturn Return in late 2016. Saturn Return comprises a selection of songs from the same recording session as Sierra Kilo Alpha and was released on a rocket-shaped USB drive.^{[citation needed]}

In 2018, the band announced that they would release one song every week (each Friday, hence "52 Fridays") for an entire year. At the end of 2019, the entire 52-week series of single releases was successfully concluded with the song "Magnolia Springtime". The resulting collection, One Year of Ska, won the ARIA Award for Best World Music Album in 2019.^{[citation needed]}

The band draws inspiration from many elements of the ska genre, from the Jamaican movement through to UK Two Tone, as well as present day Latino Ska.^{[citation needed]}

They are signed to FOUR FOUR, an imprint of ABC Music.^[6]

Members of the band include:^{[when?][citation needed]}

Mohair Slim was previously a member of the band.^{[citation needed]}