Editing Dexys Midnight Runners (section)

====''Searching for the Young Soul Rebels'' and first band split====
Building on the unexpected success of "Dance Stance" (aka "Burn It Down"), Dexys' next single, "[[Geno (song)|Geno]]" – about [[Geno Washington]] – became a British Number One in 1980.<ref name="2014int" /> It featured the band's "Late Night Feelings" imprint on the single, which became a trademark of the band's records on EMI.<ref name="bio" />  Rowland wrote about Washington as he had seen one of his performances aged 11 with his brother.<ref name="Reynolds" /> The success of the song prompted Washington to make a return to live performance, but it also prompted the departure of Leek, who said he didn't want to be famous.<ref>''[[Record Mirror]]'', 10 May 1980</ref>  Pete Saunders returned to the band temporarily, replacing Leek, to record their debut album.<ref name="bio" />

Dexys' debut LP, ''[[Searching for the Young Soul Rebels]]'', which featured "Geno", was released in July 1980.<ref name="bio" /> The label of the album also included the band's "Late Night Feelings" imprint, and the album's sleeve featured a photograph of a [[Belfast]] Catholic boy carrying his belongings after moving from his home during [[the Troubles]]; the Irish-descended Rowland explained that "I wanted a picture of unrest. It could have been from anywhere but I was secretly glad that it was from Ireland."<ref name="Reynolds" /> Of the album's title, Rowland said "I don't know&nbsp;... I just liked the sound of it, really."<ref name="Reynolds" />  Of the songs on the album, only two ("Geno" and "[[There, There, My Dear]]") were written by Rowland (lyrics) and Archer (music) together; producer [[Pete Wingfield]] hadn't liked Rowland's lyrics on their third co-composition ("Keep It") and had instead turned those lyrics into a separate song ("Love Part One"); Blythe wrote new lyrics for the version of "Keep It" on the album.<ref>Kevin Archer, Liner notes to ''Searching for the Young Soul Rebels'' (2000)</ref>  The same month, Rowland imposed a press embargo on the band; instead, Dexys would take out ads in the music papers explaining the band's position on various issues.<ref name="Gimarc" /> This was a response to some less than complimentary opinions from some music press writers;<ref name="2014int" /> for example, the ''[[NME]]'s'' Mark Cordery accused the band of "emotional fascism" and described their music as a perversion of soul music with "no tenderness, no sex, no wit, no laughter".<ref name="Reynolds" />

After the album, Saunders was replaced by [[Mick Talbot]] (ex-[[The Merton Parkas]]) on keyboards.<ref name="bio" />  "There, There, My Dear" became the band's second top-10 single. However, after a couple of months of touring, Rowland insisted on writing new lyrics to Archer's music for "Keep It" for release as the band's next single, despite EMI's objections.<ref name="bio" />   The single, called "Keep It Part Two (Inferiority Part One)", was a failure, and five of the band members then quit,<ref name="bio" /> angered over continual personality problems with Rowland, as well as Rowland's policy of not speaking to the music press.<ref name="2014int" />  Archer and Paterson both remained with Rowland at first, but then Archer also decided to leave,<ref name="2014int" /> which reduced Dexys to just Rowland and Paterson, whom Rowland referred to as "the Celtic soul brothers" (in reference to Paterson's Scottish background and Rowland's Irish background).<ref name="BBC">"Young Guns" BBC interview, available at [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuFPJI_4SGo "The Dexys Story"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160103013618/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuFPJI_4SGo |date=3 January 2016 }}.</ref>

Archer (and Leek) eventually formed [[The Blue Ox Babes]], while the other departing members—Blythe, Spooner, Williams, "Stoker", and Talbot—formed [[The Bureau (band)|The Bureau]], which Wingfield continued to produce.