Parkway Drive pull off once-in-a-lifetime daredevil stunt for new concert film
An Australian hard rock hero has pulled off a daredevil stunt at the Sydney Opera House that Tom Cruise couldn’t get permission to do.
It’s the Tom Cruise stunt the Sydney Opera House rejected.
But Winston McCall, the frontman of Aussie hard rock heroes Parkway Drive, has pulled off a historic feat, abseiling from a helicopter onto the famous sails on Thursday morning.
The rocker’s iconic “grand entrance” was filmed just after dawn for the band’s concert feature film Home to be released next year.
Parkway Drive filmed the one-off performance of their metal hits with a full symphony orchestra and choir in the Concert Hall in June, in celebration of the band’s 20th anniversary.
Director Allan Hardy hatched a plan for the concert film’s dramatic opening sequence and spent more than a year negotiating to convince the Opera House – and the rocker – to green light the epic stunt.
After planting his feet firmly back on ground, McCall was stoked at his new status as the 007 of Oz Rock.
“This is literally the stunt that they said no to Tom Cruise for but somehow Parkway Drive ended up doing it,” McCall said.
“They said no to us for about nine months, telling us all the things we would have to do to do it, and we persisted to the point they said yes, you can do it and then no one else will ever be able to do it again.
“When I landed, the dude that caught me at the bottom said ‘Yeah! F... Tom Cruise!’ One for Australia.”
McCall said the director, who the band has worked with for many years on music videos and concert documentaries, has a way of talking them into daredevil situations from playing in flaming cages to skydiving.
He practised the stunt for several months, abseiling down a rope onto a cherry-picker platform to replicate the tiny 60cm square zone he would have to land on from the hovering chopper.
“It was the last thing that Allan pitched me for the film,” McCall said.
“He’s telling me ‘The helicopter’s going to come in, you’re going to hang out of the helicopter and you’re going to zip line down to the sails of the Opera House.’
“And I’m like ‘Come again? No I’m not.’
“But he played the old ‘No one’s ever done it before, you could be the one to do it’ card, so I had to step up. He knows how to tease me into doing things.”
McCall’s adrenaline was still pumping a couple of hours after the stunt.
“It’s a hell of an adventure, it’s insane. We took off from Bankstown Airport before dawn, with me hanging out of the helicopter with my feet on the skids, flying over the river and then the Sydney Harbour Bridge, thinking ‘Who gets to do this? I’ll never see this again in my life.’”
The stunt just trumps the other historic feat Parkway Drive pulled off for the gig back in June when their sold-out crowd of metalheads all dressed in black tie for the special gig.
McCall said fans will be first to know about the Home film premiere via the band’s website.
Originally published as Parkway Drive pull off once-in-a-lifetime daredevil stunt for new concert film
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