Independent 8,619 by Phi

Across

1 Go to loo, involving pee? Here’s potential evidence (6)
SPLASH
s(p)lash

5 Name of US rocket – you could make it go (6)
SATURN
SA turn — SA is sex appeal = it — a crossword staple that I have never heard elsewhere

8 Trace new voodoo after disturbance in coffin (6,8)
WOODEN OVERCOAT
(Trace new voodoo)* — apparently this term for a coffin isn’t in many reference works and its origin is unknown

10 Cheers someone like B Pitt or K Reeves? (6)
THANKS
T Hanks — Tom Hanks, another actor in the same world as Brad Pitt and Keanu Reeves

11 N? It’s seen in ‘negative’ or North, on reflection (8)
NITROGEN
it in (neg or n)rev. — the chemical symbol for nitrogen

12 Suppress prominent figure not offering a view (8)
STRANGLE
st{a}r angle

13 Street performance mostly tragic stuff (6)
BUSKIN
buskin{g} — a buskin is a boot that tended to be worn in old tragedies, or simply tragedy as a dramatic genre

14 Solvent, with nothing invested in a place to live (6)
AFLOAT
a fl(0)at

16 Relocation of HQ possibly making you look bad (8)
DEBASING
I’m not quite sure here: the definition seems clear enough, although I’m not sure if it’s the four words I give or just the last two words (neither of which seems to work, since ‘making you’ looks like a link but ‘making’ is necessary for the correct part of speech), and “de-basing” is perhaps a whimsical way of referring to movement of the base or HQ — is this it, or am I missing something?

18 Rock group caught with something by Shakespeare? (8)
COLDPLAY
c old play — ref the rock group (no. not the geological formation) Coldplay

20 Be lenient or light (3,3)
LET OFF
2 defs, one of them as in letting off a rocket

21 No soup remains to be cooked after involving good kitchen utensil (9,5)
MEASURING SPOON
(No soup remains)* with g included

22 Tool providers declining drink (6)
PLIERS
{sup}pliers

23 Incantation, piece with revolutionary skill (6)
MANTRA
man (art)rev. — man = piece as in chess

Down

2 Support change in the food order? I think it’ll all end in tears (7,2,4)
PROPHET OF DOOM
prop (the)* (food)* OM

3 Promotional material, subsequently upheld, to include final further items (7)
ADDENDA
ad ad with the second one reversed, including end

4 Deer may head off, in retrospect (9)
HINDSIGHT
hinds {m}ight — the plural of hind is evidently hinds, although I hadn’t thought so, and may doesn’t mean the same as might, although they are often used interchangeably. so that’s good enough

5 Dandy vilenesses, possibly (5,6,4)
SEVEN DEADLY SINS
(Dandy vilenesses)* — &lit.

6 Card sharp going round Ohio (5)
TAROT
tar(O)t

7 Very lively South American city, in our opinion (7)
RIOTOUS
Rio to us

9 Novel man to end programme during holiday trip (3,4,2,4)
THE SIGN OF FOUR
t(he sign off)our — you can sign off from lots of things and to end a programme is only one of them, so I wonder why Phi didn’t have something like a ‘perhaps’ in there — ref Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s book The Sign of The Four, the Sherlock Holmes novel, which is often called just as in this clue

13 Tramp holding on to university books – that’s sweet (6,3)
BUBBLE GUM
b(u bb leg)um — when it says ‘on to university books’, it is saying that leg is next to u bb

15 Finish up sound measure that’s completely unusual (7)
ODDBALL
(do)rev. db all — db = decibels

17 Attacked arrangement that’s working (3,4)
SET UPON
set-up on

19 Scoundrel provoked by topless clothing for women (5)
LOUSE
{b}louse — I think that ‘provoked by’ is just a link equivalent to ‘produced by’