Pro skater Tony Hawk surprised fans in London on Saturday by turning up unannounced to a video game tribute band’s gig – and joining in on stage.
‘The 900’ describes itself as “the UK’s first and only Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater cover band”. The group are currentlytouring the UKperforming “all the bangers from THPS1 to American Wasteland”.
On Saturday, The 900 performed at East London’s Signature Brew, and seemingly unexpected to everyone, Tony Hawk himself turned up and performed two songs from the Pro Skater games on stage.
“Thank you for having such reverence for [the songs in our games],” Hawk told the crowd. “It’s really been my biggest honour to have these games carry on for so long and, hey, we’re keeping it going right? I had to join the party!”
“WE LEGIT PLAYED 2 SONGS WITH @tonyhawk WTAF,” The 900tweeted.
Venue Signature Brewadded: “Not gonna lie, when we booked a @tonyhawk soundtrack cover band, we didn’t expect actual Tony Hawk to show up in London and cover @goldfingermusic with them. Sorry, what just happened??”
Tony Hawk was in London to appear atAn Evening with Tony Hawkat the London Palladium, but the show was cancelled seemingly without explanation.
Not gonna lie, when we booked a@tonyhawksoundtrack cover band, we didn’t expect actual Tony Hawk to show up in London and cover@goldfingermusicwith them. Sorry, what just happened??pic.twitter.com/K0Hpd2A7bq
Looking older all the time, feeling younger in my mind…https://t.co/Xocf0TPLp1
My boyfriend plays in a Tony Hawk Pro Skater cover band and TONY FUCKIN HAWK CAME DOWN TO THEIR SHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!pic.twitter.com/5eJDH2zkEE
Tony Hawk recently claimed thata planned remake of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4 was canneddue toActivision Blizzard’s decision to absorb 1 + 2 developerVicarious VisionsintoBlizzardlast year.
“That was the plan, even up until the release date of [1 and 2],” Hawk said. “We were doing 3 and 4, and then Vicarious got kind of absorbed, and then they were looking for other developers, and then it was over.”
He added: “The truth of it is [Activision] were trying to find somebody to do 3 and 4 but they just didn’t really trust anyone the way they did Vicarious.
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“So they took other pitches from other studios, like, ‘what would you do with the THPS title?’ And they didn’t like anything they heard, and then that was it.
“Who knows? Maybe when the dust settles, we’ll figure it out. You never know. I never would’ve thought we were going to do 1 and 2 20 years later.”
Tony Hawk has also announced he’s entering the world of blockchain gameswith plans to build “the biggest skate park in the metaverse” in a partnership with virtual world The Sandbox and NFT platform Autograph.
