Hailing from Westside Melbourne, The Hackkets is a band made up of members with and without disability.

Having been incubated by Footscray Arts Centre for 25 years, The Hackkets originally focused on covers, immersing themselves in universal classic hits that win over even the most hardened in-car sing-along scrooge. Since 2011, they have channelled their love of such classics into their own songs.

Singers Victoria Cini (keys/vox), Stuart Flenley (guitar/vox), and Peter Tolhurst (guitar/vox), bring three distinctly different approaches to the songs they co-write in the band. Stuart merges his twin heroes Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra with a sense of humour that invariably breaks through, while Victoria has crafted her own Rock Chick persona through which she projects a rebel without a cause for the smart-phone generation. Rounding out the band is drummer Andrew Paganella who has been keeping the band in time since 1999. Of the drums, Andrew says, ‘I chose drums because I want to get somewhere to make the crowd jump out. Once I switched to drums, I stayed.’ The Hackkets is facilitated by James Hullick, as well as guest mentors who are highly acclaimed in the live music industry