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Anyone else struggling with this? I've been at it since this morning and still only solved about half the clues!

Brendan, I found it tough in places, but not unduly so.

I've done OK with this, but have single unchecked letters left in 4d-Upturn in happiness for local mother (4) and 21a - Try to overlook feminine Hindu symbol (5). Haven’t a clue how either works.
Theme was very familiar...

4 down - def is under the second heading for "mother" in Chambers. It's a reversal of a dialect word for happiness

21 across - word for try (or a love affair) minus F. Last letter unclued.

In answer to Brendan's question, I lucked out by guessing what went in the top row and searching for that combined with "song" - which gave me all the thematic material I needed. The songwriter has had a fair bit of exposure in puzzles recently!

Just so I don't send people on a wild goose chase, I remember I also included one of the modified entries in the search too.

Thanks loge, always something to learn from Chambers. Didn't know that meaning of mother, or that synonym for try.

Thanks Malone, thanks Loge, thanks Lumen, can I ask if the the songwriter's first name has 4 letters? I've got quite a lot of the top line and, assuming the song title is split 3,9, there's only a handful of options for the second word but, so far, not scream song title!

Not 4 letters, Brendan.

Okay, thanks Loge,

I've whittled down the options for the top row to two but when I put both into Google followed by 'song', I either get Mario Lanza of Three Dog Night! which is odd because nether of them have a song with them names, only songs that include those words.

I think I'll leave it for the night and look again tomorrow.

.... obviously the 3rd letter of the 2nd word is unchecked so could be a V or a K.