| ASSETSTRIPPER | When the group's junkie becomes financial predator (5-8) |
| LOANSHARK | Financial predator whose second word is this marine predator: 🦈: 2 wds. |
| NEARESTOFVIPERS | First asp most likely to bite when the group is disturbed? |
| OFFICERKRUPKE | Musical character who is told in absentia, "Our mothers all are junkies" |
| BONO | The band U2 was named the winner of the 2025 Woody Guthrie Prize in September; this man, along with the Edge, will accept the prize on the group's behalf in Tulsa on Oct.21 |
| THRILLSEEKERS | Adrenaline junkies (6,7) |
| TUMBLINGTUMBLEWEEDS | Western standard by American band Sons of the Pioneers written by the group's Winnipeg-born member Bob Nolan (b.1908 - d.1980) ...Trivia! Both the song and the songwriter are in the Canadian Songwrite |
| SETSTHETABLE | Arranges cutlery for the groups on the list (4,3,5) |
| FAITHFUL | Member of one of the groups on The Traitors (8) |
| SUSPECTS | Puts us, quietly, in the groups with the potentially guilty (8) |
| JOINTVENTURE | Drug experiment with collaboration between the groups (5,7) |
| SOMERVILLE | Jimmy --, member of the groups Bronski Beat and the Communards (10) |
| GANGS | The groups sang off key, to start with (5) |
| SOTHO | One of the groups that make up the Bantu people |
| TETRADS | Groups of four, and what's spelled out by the groups of four in this puzzle's theme answers |
| MICRONESIAN | Native of any of the groups of small islands that comprise a subregion of the Pacific Ocean |
| UPSURGE | Some of the groups urged a strong increase |
| TIMES | ___ Square (landmark suggested by the groups of circled letters) |
| STARCLASS | Astronomy: any of the groups into which stars are classified (9) |
| BRIGADE | One of the groups which an army is divided into (7) |
