Command Performance by Centigram

This was a very neat puzzle from Centigram. Some easy clues helped fill the grid, despite the jumbled across entries and the finale was superb. The first letters of extra words in down clues gave firstly HEROD’S BROTHER’S DAUGHTER and then DANCE. Salome was the daughter (allowing the upper isolated cell) and the dance was given at 25 as THE SEVEN VEILS. The outcome was that the head of John the Baptist (the letter J) had to be removed and placed in the lower isolated cell, fittingly above the word CHARGER. The remaining letters had to be entered instead as 25 giving real words as all the down entries!

Across
1 Gauche tenor has to stop feigning so much (8)
TACTLESS T (tenor) + ACT LESS
7 Junk food? (5)
TRIPE 2 definitions
11 Transgression gets king in an embarrassing predicament (6)
SCRAPE R (king) in SCAPE
12 Fruit crescent shapes with the Spanish for love (6)
MELONS EL for O in MOONS
13 Confidence (assume a climber possesses it) (10)
POSITIVITY POSIT + IT in IVY
14 Part of a flytrap with canvas and knotted lace (8)
TENTACLE TENT (canvas) + Anagram LACE
17 For instance fish privately (5)
ASIDE AS + IDE
19 Mineral that's blue, but any hue is possible (6)
HAUYNE Anagram ANY HUE
20 Cross comes over in Liverpool attack (7)
CATTALO Hidden reversed
22 Homer's lace headdress (6)
CORNET COR (homer) + NET
23 Stripper's turn, a dry measure? Quite the opposite (7)
REMOVER REV (turn) + OMER (all reversed)
25 See preamble THE SEVEN VEILS
29 An instrument to knock, ringing assorted steel (7)
CELESTA CA (to knock) containing anagram STEEL
32 Wound not needing the French ointment (6)
CERATE LACERATE less LA
33 Bizarre carriage in Oklahoma mostly, and Alabama (7)
SURREAL SURRE(y) (ref. The musical Oklahoma) + AL
35 A cut of beef and kidney bean (6)
RUNNER 2 definitions
36 Pirate king on the top (5)
ROVER R (king) + OVER
38 Your old stinking badger cut back like a rubber (8)
DELETORY Reverse YR O + TELED(u) (the stinking badger of Java)
40 Hissy fit of one in show with smart fashion (10)
CONNIPTION CON + NIP + TON containing I
42 Offence reported down under? Pip, ... (6)
ACINUS Homophone SIN in AUS(tralia)!
43 ... the offender, is inside (6)
SINNER ‘S + INNER
44 Soft shoe, backless, Chinese (5)
MULCH MUL(e) + CH
45 A murderer spending a pound for more rum (8)
STRANGER STRANGLER less L

Extra words in down clues are shown in [ ]
 
Down
1 Divine Eastern [houri] by a pool (4)
SPAE SPA (pool) + E
2 Glaswegian is unable to [enter] church in cotton grass (7)
CANNACH CANNA (cannot) + CH
3 Sermons revising [religious] rules, etc (8)
LECTURES Anagram RULES ETC
4 A bird [outraged] by the heartless attendant (7)
ACOLYTE A COLY + T(h)E
5 Recluse, being [Dominican] out of chapter (6)
ESSENE ESSENCE less C (chapter)
6 Hostility regularly makes [someone] secretive (3)
SLY regularly hidden hoStiLitY
7 Arboreal creature eats a [big] tuber (6)
POTATO A in POTTO
8 Redcap in internal security shoots [rifle] (4)
IMPS MP (redcap, military police) in IS
9 Party with dance involving veils, initially [on] (5)
REVEL V in REEL
10 Lure of net criminal [trafficking] illicit drug (6)
ENTICE Anagram NET + ICE
15 Ceremonial container with [half] yearly payment to the queen (6)
CENSER CENS + ER
16 Sailor [enters] new body of water (4)
TARN TAR + N
18 Hanging seen in Poland, [Romania] or Serbia (6)
DORSER  Hidden
19 Too much [sex] in the girl with more passion (6)
HOTTER OTT (over the top) in HER
20 A once pure [Danish] prince (5)
AMEER A + MEER
21 Move unsteadily? One who shouldn't, mostly [all] right (6)
TEETER TEETE(e) (teetotallers shouldn’t be unsteady) + R
24 Very infectious turn with [ultimate] veil off (8)
VIRULENT anagram TURN + VEIL
26 Body of Corinthian capital is in a [Greek] bay (4)
VASE ‘S in VAE
27 [Hot], as effect of fan oven set high (7)
VENTOSE Anagram OVEN SET
28 Malicious [taunting] words lead to the latest blows (7)
LANDERS SLANDER with 1^st letter going to end
30 Shaggy dog story [eventually] cut short? Ie, docked (6)
CURTAL CUR TAL(e) !
31 Extravagant [royal] loo with liberty of going out (6)
LAVISH LAV (loo) + ISH
32 Lamentable lines in Jersey, etc, [do] no good (6)
CRYING RY (railway lines) in CI (Channel Is) + NG (no good)
34 Officer in tall hat [appoints] deputy (5)
LOCUM OC in LUM
37 Impressive [new] English movie (4)
EPIC E + PIC
39 [Cretan] god - one used in old day name (4)
ODIN I in O(old) D(ay) N(ame)
41 Plant found in Morocco, [especially] Casablanca (3)
OCA Hidden