What a lot of hidden clues, I thought, as I typed this up. Still there is something inherently chancy about the fact that the unclued answers are merely intermediaries, defining the links in the chain rather than being them. Worth being a bit easy to ensure they’re got, perhaps. Nevertheless 3 down is pretty well obviously CONCERNING and there aren’t many 2-letter words meaning that, so that should have been a way in. And I tried as hard as possible to make sure CAROUSEL came to mind in 28 down.
The sequence CELEBRATE (19a), AWAKEN (2d), STIR (17a), WILE (30a), REGRET (26a) and CONCERNING (3d) defines CAROUSE, AROUSE, ROUSE, RUSE, RUE and RE. The musical CAROUSEL is found in the final column.
ACROSS
1 EAR-CAP; ear cap
6 OSIRIS; 0 sir is
11 SWOOP; initial letters & lit.
12 ELEMI; hidden rev.
13 TANNERS; cf. tenners
15 PAD; pa(I)d
18 NAME; man (rev.) + E
20 SNARE; hidden rev.
21 PINATA; a in pint + a
22 THINLY; thin(g) l(ikel)y
23 TIBER; B in tier
26 IMBROGLIO; r in anag.
29 BOSN; sob (rev.) + n
31 LOO; loo(k)
32 GOATEES; go at + see (rev.)
34 ERNST; hidden
35 NEELE; hidden
37 STROLL; r in s toll
DOWN
1 ESTOC; hidden
4 APE; (t)ape
5 PORTRAY; port ray
6 OSSIA; a is so (all rev.)
7 SEAR; sea r
8 REPAYABLE; anag.
9 IMAMS; M in I’m as
10 SIDECAR; I’d in races (rev.)
14 ONE-NIGHTER; anag.
16 PLAINSONG; anag.
20 STABLER; 2 mngs.
21 PARLOUS; parlou(r)s
24 EISELL; e I sell
25 MOORE; o in more
27 BIGOT; big OT
28 OUSEL; (car)ousel
30 WITE; 2 mngs.
33 ANT; ant(I)
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