On 13th September 2025, the Daisy Jones Bar in Stellenbosch was packed to capacity. Steve Louw had reunited All Night Radio for a sold-out performance, and when “Sea Side Love” and “Breaking Hearts” rang out across the winelands venue, the response was immediate. Four decades on, those songs still packed the same punch.
Forty-one years earlier, in October 1984, All Night Radio exploded onto the South African music scene with “The Heart’s The Best Part” – an album that would change everything.
Steve Louw knew exactly what sound the band needed. In 1983, he bought a 1966 Fender Telecaster in Hillbrow. “I knew a Tele was the sound the band needed,” he recalls. On the eve of entering the studio in July 1984, he gave the guitar to Nico Burger – and that Telecaster became the signature sound of All Night Radio.
The double A-side single “Breaking Hearts” and “Sea Side Love” arrived first, and the impact was immediate. When Steve played “Breaking Hearts” for Capital Radio and 702 DJ Alan Pearce, “he looked up at me while smoking a joint and said who is on the flamethrower?” Critics were equally struck. Andrew Donaldson in the Cape Times called it “probably the noisiest and freshest-sounding rock single produced in this country to date,” whilst praising Burger for “effortlessly establishing himself as wunderkind here in one neat and fluid solo.”
The album’s sound was no accident. Steve Louw’s tenacity led to an unlikely transatlantic collaboration with producer John Rollo, fresh from working with Little Steven van Zandt, the Kinks, and George Benson. According to The Argus Tonight, when Louw met Little Steven in Johannesburg, he “grabbed the meeting, dumped the questions and, on meeting the great one asked: ‘Will you produce my band?'” Though Little Steven couldn’t commit, he connected Louw with Rollo – who left George Benson waiting and flew to Cape Town.
The result was ten days of recording at UCA Sound in Cape Town with the core trio of Louw, Burger, and Rob Nagel, backed by session players Richard Pickett on drums and Brian Seppel on keyboards. The album was then mixed at House of Music in New Jersey and mastered at Sterling Sound in New York City – giving it a sonic presence that, as The Argus review noted, “just leaves local produce miles behind.”
But beyond the production values, it was the songs themselves that gave the album its lasting power. Donaldson observed that Louw displayed “a talent for crafting songs that are free of obvious and clichéd hooks. They’re energetic, they’re thoughtfully constructed and, what’s important, they have a shelf life that takes you far past the first listening.”
From the raw energy of “Breaking Hearts” to the driving momentum of “Rising Storm”, from the tender vulnerability of “The Heart’s The Best Part” to the defiant closing statement of “Land of Sin” – all twelve tracks were written by Louw, capturing both the passion and restlessness of the era.
“The Heart’s The Best Part” remains a watershed moment in South African rock – the album where a Cape Town band reached for international production standards and grabbed them, creating something that still sounds vital today.
Back at the Daisy Jones Bar last month, Steve Louw stood on stage with Willem Möller on guitar, Rob Nagel back on bass, Tim Rankin on drums, and Simon Orange on keyboards. With Nico Burger’s passing in the mid-1990s, his brilliant guitar work lives on only in the recordings – but there was one more piece of him present that night.
Steve was playing that same 1966 Fender Telecaster. His wife Erna had bought it back from Nico in 1992 as a gift, and the guitar that defined the sound of All Night Radio was singing those songs again.
“It was so much fun singing those songs again,” Steve reflects. “Our first radio hits. Breaking out of the garage and onto a national platform was thrilling for all of us. Playing the 1966 Fender Telecaster again, which was the signature sound of the band was special. Sadly Nico, the band’s brilliant guitarist, was not there but his spirit and incredible talent live on in the music.”
The raw energy that made critics sit up and take notice in 1984 was alive and well in 2025, proving that some music doesn’t just survive – it endures.