Professor Groove and The Booty Affair occupy a curious place in the Sydney band pantheon. They have been rockin’ the party for nigh on 20 years, and the Booty Affair has had several membership revolutions in that time, but all lineups have consisted of the cream of Australia’s funk, soul and boogie crop, and ex-Members populate every facet of the Australian music scene.

Their live shows are the stuff of legend – eg. the “Marathons of Funk” at the Harbourside Brasserie in the late 90’s – 3 hour + non-stop adrenalin fuelled funk melees that lasted way into the small hours and converted a legion of lifetime devotees, or the Blaxploitation-based show at the Becks Bar/Sydney Festival where the Professor fronted a 12 piece funk orchestra on a stage populated with several mannequins dressed as ghetto ho’s, or the year after where a relatively small 6 piece Booty Affair were surrounded by so many synthesisers it was like a Vangelis concert.

Drawing from the same well as George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic-thang, PG&TBA are an ever-changing beast, a funk hydra with several rearing heads, consistently different, laced with a sly humour and an encyclopaedic funk knowledge, and a musical spectrum that veers from old school Grandmaster-style rap to Chemicalised beats and gorgeous modern pop-disco, often within the same song.

PG&TBA began as a side project for ex-Swoop members Dr. Roland Kapferer (vocals), and Joshua Beagley (guitar) in the early 90’s, with the intention of playing underground funk and soul rare grooves with a revolving posse of guest members, and that is essentially how they still are today, with Booty Affair alumni including Terepai Richmond on drums (Missy Higgins, DIG, Whitlams) and Michael di Francesco (Van She) on bass.

They began in typically auspicious and unconventional fashion, acting as an adhoc backing band to a drugfuelled Flavor Flav from Public Enemy on only their third ever gig at the then Freezer nightclub, a 3 hour manic boogie jam to a bursting crowd filled with the innercity illuminati of the day (Hutchence, Minogue etc). They also were the “house” band who jammed with The Stones at The Basement, notoriously kicked Madonna’s bass player off stage at Kinselas in a fit of pique, turned down an unrecognised Jewel for a guest vocal and dragged a mesmerised Bjork away from the Big Day Out to get another dose of Booty magic at a small club in 1996.

But the band’s recorded output has been sparse – they released the now-classic “And So Funketh The Wise Man” in 2001, featuring original chant-based stompers like “Do Wot I Can” and “Decks To The Left Of Me” interspersed with Professorised readings of funk classics like “I Get Lifted” and Jimmy Castor’s “It’s Just Begun.”

And finally in 2009 the “Fat Woman” EP was released with some of the rawest funk of that or any year – “Fat Woman” and “Rubbity Dub” are bonafide classics, typical examples of the captivating strange melange that constitutes the Professor’s sound.

2010 sees the Professor ramping up the workrate and preparing to drop some brand new funk nuggets. Should be nothing if not interesting.