Schedules denial to be put before VIPs (8)
I believe the answer is:
notables
'vips' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'schedules denial to be put before' is the wordplay.
'schedules' becomes 'tables' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'denial' becomes 'no' (no is a kind of denial).
'to be put before' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'tables' after 'no' is 'NOTABLES'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for notables that I've seen is " Celebrities".)