Crossword Genius

US convicts collapsing, is dry bread not providing energy? (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

yardbirds

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'us convicts' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'collapsing is dry bread not providing energy?' is the wordplay.
'collapsing' is an anagram indicator.
'not providing' suggests deleting specific letters.
'energy?' becomes 'e' (physics symbol as in E=mc2).
'is'+'dry'+'bread'='isdrybread'
'isdrybread' with 'e' removed is 'isdrybrad'.
'isdrybrad' anagrammed gives 'YARDBIRDS'.

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