Author Archives: Vanessa

Olivia D’Abo, David Cassidy and Bill Bartell filming “The Spirit of ’76” (Contributed Image)

As I was interviewing just a handful of the many people who were friends with Bill Bartell, also known as Pat Fear from White Flag, I was struck by how many people in music knew him. If you haven’t heard the sad news, Bartell died and was found in his Moreno Valley home on Tuesday, Sept. 24. My story about Bartell is posted at PE.com and there will be one in The Press-Enterprise print edition tomorrow. However, I wasn’t able to share all of the details I learned today about his shenanigans, music, and more, which is why I wanted to spend some more time with these stories here in the blog.

Marc Goldstein, a longtime friend of Bartell’s referred to him as “Forrest Punk” earlier today. Bartell seemed to know everyone (see photo of David Cassidy above) and had a magnet of a personality. And, he was going to mess with you first.

Ronnie Barnett, of The Muffs, and at one point White Flag, met Bartell when he first moved to the area at  a show with King’s X and The Bangles.

Here are some things Goldstein and Barnett had to share about their friend in two interviews I did on Wednesday. Thanks to Marc for sharing the photos.

“Bill, he was all over ‘The Decline of Western Civilization,'” Barnett said. 

As a big fan of the Germs, he can be seen in the film writing on Darby Crash. The urban legend is that the words Bartell wrote, “Test Pat,” were in reference to Germs member (and later Nirvana and Foo Fighters member) Pat Smear. Barnett debunks that myth–Bartell was actually writing the words “Test Pattern,” the name of his pre-White Flag band, on Crash’s arm.

He can also be seen wearing an orange shirt in that scene. When he consulted on the Darby Crash biopic “What We Do Is Secret,” he still had the orange shirt he wore and let the actor in the scene wear the same shirt, Barnett said. 

“The guy had an amazing book in him or movie of his own,” Goldstein said.

He was also a big heavy metal fan and apparently gave Steve Harris the idea for the title of Iron Maiden’s live album “Maiden Japan,” Barnett said.

“Bill always had a metal side to him,” Barnett said.

But he also had a respect for law enforcement. Barnett and other members of The Muffs were at his graduation ceremony when he became a reserve office for the city of Beaumont’s Police Department in the early 1990s.

They were once in a restaurant with 20 motorcycle-riding officers and Bartell could identify how long they had been on duty by the wear of their boots.

Bartell also went on to be a rodeo rider for a while. Barnett said that another friend joked that Bartell was slowly becoming each member of the Village People. During the rodeo phase, he would go see Brooks & Dunn and wrote some country songs.

Fun fact: All of the White Flag members have joke names. Barnett’s was Lloyd Doheny, which was the intersection where friend Michael Steele of The Bangles lived at the time.

“Being in music and being a fan he would blur the lines,” Goldstein said.

Bartell loved Cheap Trick and ultimately became friends with Rick Nielsen.  In August, Bartell even attended FYF in Los Angeles to see the reformed FLAG. Barnett said Bartell was on the stage, adding songs to the set list.

Goldstein said when you saw Bartell at your show, you knew it was a big one and praised his strong work ethic. One of his favorite memories of collaborating with anyone was when he worked with Bartell on White Flag’s cover of “Wuthering Heights” for a compilation.

Again, thank you to everyone who shared stories, returned my phone calls and took the time to read the story about Bill.

Bill Bartell, a.k.a. Pat Fear, plays guitar and gets attacked by an alien while Tracy Harrison, a.k.a. Trace Element, plays drums at a White Flag show. (Kimberly McWhorter/Contributed Image)

I love my job because I get to talk to people about music all the time. However, there are days when there’s a sad undercurrent to it. Today I wrote about the death of White Flag’s Pat Fear, who was known as Bill Bartell to his many friends. I can’t say thank you enough to everyone who took the time to talk to me today and share stories and your perspectives. There’s a story about Bartell’s death at PE.com and there will be one in The Press-Enterprise print edition tomorrow. However, I wasn’t able to share all of the details I learned today about his shenanigans, music, and more, which is why I wanted to spend some more time with these stories here in the blog.

Tracy Harrison, also known as Trace Element of White Flag, had played with Bartell for more than 30 years, but neither one of them really remembered how they started playing together.

Harrison said it was all centered at The Ritz, a defunct club off University Avenue in Riverside where all of the punk bands played. Right as White Flag was about to release its debut album in 1982, someone had given Bartell Harrison’s number and he called the drummer to see if he wanted to tour with White Flag.  They would rehearse and play three times each week.

Harrison, who lives in Moreno Valley, said that when he joined the band, Bartell already had its ethos. At the time, punk rock had started having rules, the antithesis of the individuality and freedom of the genre in the first place.

“We would have a band that pointed to the ironic full circle,” Harrison said.

As Harrison joined the band and they went on tour, White Flag started to make a name for itself, a far cry from the first shows that Bartell had performed in in Sunnymead backyards.  Band like NOFX and The Offspring opened for White Flag when they were just starting out.

White Flag also paid it forward for other bands.

Bartell, a huge KISS fan (multiple folks told me about the story of him sneaking out and flying to New York as a teenager to see KISS in concert and he was also in the movie “KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park”) and White Flag has a record label called Gasatanka, a play off KISS’ old label, Casablanca, and put out music from emerging bands such as The F.U.s and later, Shonen Knife, plus a host of compilations.

Around 1987-1988  Bartell, a huge fan of The Beatles, recorded a cover of “Tomorrow Never Knows” and a couple of Yoko Ono songs and released it under the project Tater Totz, with members of Redd Kross, Pat Smear and more guests, including actor Danny Bonaduce.

A number of people told me about how Bartell could always be seen at concerts large and small.

“Every show was important to Bill,” Harrison said.

He even joked about White Flag’s never ending discography–describing it as a “vinyl collector’s nightmare.”

“Bill was working on something with everybody he knew–always,” Harrison said.

“Any time somebody was coming through town–Bill was trying to get them to play on something,” he said, laughing.

He also was a champion of underground music, constantly turning his friends onto new things. Harrison and Bartell would constantly try to one-up each other in discovering new music.  He was responsible for getting Shonen Knife and Os Mutantes recognition in the United States.

“He was very much an asset to not only the punk rock scene, but music in general,” Harrison said. “He not only loved music, but also became a good friend to everyone he came in contact with.”

Bill Bartell (top row, center), of White Flag, is surrounded by the cast ,  extras  and the McWhorter family on the Darby Crash biopic “What We Do Is Secret.” (Greg McWhorter/Contributed Image)

I spent the day working on a story about the life of of Bill Bartell/Pat Fear of White Flag.  The punk legend was found dead in his Moreno Valley home on Tuesday, Sept. 24.  I’ve also been putting together condolences from friends and fans.

Two of the people I had the privilege of speaking to today were Greg McWhorter, who owns Moreno Valley’s Artifix Records with his wife, Kim.

The first White Flag album Greg McWhorter owned was 1984’s “Third Strike,” but he didn’t meet Bartell until 2001 after the McWhorter family had moved to Moreno Valley, where White Flag started in the early 1980s when the area was known as Sunnymead.

The McWhorters founded Artifix Records and one of the first people they reached out to was Bartell. The label put out a CD of White Flag’s earliest material, from the first year of the band’s existence.

He said he once heard someone say that putting together a complete discography of White Flag would be impossible, and that he agreed with it.

“White Flag has put out more records in more countries than any other band in history,” Greg McWhorter said, who is also a punk rock historian and collector.

Artifix has some great material on White Flag over at their site, too.

But more than the music, the McWhorters said Bartell treated him like his own extended family.

“He touched so many people,” Greg McWhorter said.

He also said Bartell was one to tick people off, but did it in a good-natured way.

Their kids were even in the video for “Danger Island.” Kim McWhorter said only Bartell would make their kids burst into flames at the end of the video.

“It was hilarious,” she said.

When Bartell was consulting on the movie “What We Do is Secret,” about Germs’ lead singer Darby Crash, he invited the McWhorters onto the set, too.

Kim McWhorter had a fond memory of Bartell getting her into the photo pit for Os Mutantes, a Brazilian band that he helped gain an American cult following.

A very special thank you to the McWhorters for sending photos over for us to use, too. They often photographed White Flag and Bartell over the years.

Greg also sent this over a little bit after we talked:
“I just wanted to add that Bill Bartell’s level of energy was maddening. He never took breaks, he never stopped. He gave everything he did 110%. His enthusiasm was infectious, and it was this enthusiasm and energy that allowed many to see past his smart-aleck nature. He loved to tease everyone and nobody was safe from his barbs when he was around. Going back to his energy…We never figured out what made him tick, but he really sucked all of the life out of living that he could. He often amazed us with his daily and non-stop exploits. His declining health he referred to as “an annoyance” and never really let on just how bad his health was getting.”

Pat Fear performs with White Flag at the DeAnza Theatre in Riverside in 1984. (Rick Knox/Contributed Image)

UPDATE: I am working on a story about Bill Bartell/Pat Fear.  We did get some information from the Riverside County Coroner’s office this morning. If you would like to share memories and/or photos, please contact me at vfranko@pe.com.

Since learning of the news of the death of Bill Bartell, better known as Pat Fear, an icon in the Inland music scene and founder of punk band White Flag, which started in Moreno Valley, friends and fans have been sharing condolences via social media.

Here’s a look at what some people are sharing: