There was a brief mention that came across my social media feed about the Philly Pops reclaiming their name after performing as No Name Pops for a number of years.

Curious to learn what that was about, I did some research and sure enough, if you search for the Philly Pops, NoNamePops.org is the first result. (Though the URL doesn’t currently work. They may be transitioning to a Philly Pops URL.)

I wanted to learn more and discovered the Philly Pops had shutdown back in 2023 after issues of mounting debt were exacerbated by their controller embezzling $280,000.

The former musicians continued to perform as the No Name Pops until this weekend when they will return to play a 4th of July concert as the Philly Pops.

This is a bit of a publicity move as they received possession of the name back in October. The family of former Pops conductor Peter Nero owned the name and gifted it to the No Name Pops. The organization has spent the time since then planning a rebrand, re-organizing, and hiring new musical director,  Chris Dragon.