If you really don't want mains power at the front
panel at all, then a
relay
is paobably the best solution - lots of room to mount it (and the xfmr to
power it), and you don't have to modify the front panel.
Surely a transformer would need to be powered all the time?
Why not use a nicad to pull the relay in, and charge it up when the unit
is on? If the nicad was flat, you could just have an ordinary pushbutton
to bypass the relay to get you going.
Gordon.