He's a former punk bassist from the East End of London with the requisite anarchic attitude and she's a classically trained guzheng player and child of the Cultural Revolution. As unlikely as it sounds, 'Jah Wobble' and Liao Zilan make sweet music together. They are also husband and wife.
But when they first met, Liao had no idea John Wardle - to give him his real name - had once been the bass player with Public Image Limited (PiL), the band many regarded as groundbreaking which was formed post-Sex Pistols with John Lydon.
Liao laughs at the memory. 'I met John [Wardle] at Womad [the World of Music, Arts and Dance festival conceived by Peter Gabriel] in Finland in the mid-1990s when he was with his band Invaders of the Heart,' she says. 'I liked that band, but I had no idea who PiL was.'
Wardle was in good company. When Liao met Gabriel, she was equally clueless as to his fame. Even though it was the 90s, there was good reason that the musician hadn't yet crossed her radar.
Having spent her formative years on the mainland during the Cultural Revolution, and being the product of a sheltered upbringing and a strict father, Liao says she was unaware of many aspects of British culture.
'We weren't allowed to listen to rock music,' she says. 'It was banned. I remember at some stage listening to pop music from Hong Kong, which I loved. But rock music [from other countries] was not widely heard.'
Ironically, Liao went on to work with some of the biggest names in western music, including Gabriel. Recalling her first meeting with him, she says: 'I remember being at Womad and I somehow ended up in a studio with Peter Gabriel, or 'PG' as he gets called, and I didn't know who he was. He was there with a keyboard player from America and an African drummer.