Janet Reiter (guitar/vocals) met Nancy Wilder (bass/vocals) in St. Lucia 
while both were sailing down-island in the spring of 1996.  They played 
together two nights at Rodney Bay Marina and Nancy went along her way.  
Janet stayed and played the rest of the season with Joseph, the jembe player.

Two years later they met up again, this time in St. Thomas.
They played here as a duo at all the fine resorts, bars and restaurants 
including Frenchman’s Reef, Latitude 18 and Raffles for a couple seasons 
but then Nancy moved back to Rochester where she formed Rochester’s 
premier female jazz trio, ELLE with Deborah Sorensen and 
Kristen Shiner-McGuire.  

However, she continued making regular trips to St. Thomas to continue 
the efforts of The POPtarts in bringing silly blonde jokes and eclectic 
pop music to St. Thomas audiences.  And then she brought in “Elle” 
drummer/vocalist, Kristen, who is definitely a born-again POPtart, 
fitting right in with the good music, 3-part harmony and irreverence 
that our audiences have come to know us for.  Not to mention, our outfits!

Janet has begun returning the favor by traveling to Rochester for the 
last two summers to play with the POPtarts at the Rochester Yacht Club, 
Genesee Yacht Club, Le Jazz Hot, Shumway’s Marina and a variety of fairs 
and events around the countryside of upstate New York.

Last year at this same time, the POPtarts celebrated their CD release of 
Ladies Night” – a mixture of island-pop-girl-tourist favorites!!  
The audiences at Tickles and Hull Bay Hideaway were humongous, crazed 
and lively and caused Dan and Mimi Perry of Hull Bay Hideaway to remark,
Did we have the POPtarts???……or did we have the Rolling Stones???!!!!!”

The POPtarts played the first week of 2004 here in St. Thomas at all 
their regular haunts and brought in the New Year with a bang-up 
celebration at Tickles.