Band playing toast us covering Queen (6,3)
I believe the answer is:
status quo
'band playing' is the definition.
'status quo' can be an answer for 'band' (I've seen this before). I'm unsure of the 'playing' bit.
'toast us covering queen' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'us' is within the answer.
'queen' could be 'qu' (abbreviation for queen) and 'qu' is located in the answer.
an anagram of 'toast' is 'stato' which is present in the remaining letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for status quo that I've seen before include "The existing state of affairs, as things are" , "The existing situation - in Latin" , "Current state of affairs" , "Existing position" , "band" .)