The image comes from one of the pages of the ‘hidden’ Kid A booklet located under the cd tray with the word AMOK written in a speech bubble above it.

(Source : Radiohead Artwork on Tumblr)

AMOK is of course the name of the upcoming Atoms for Peace album due to be released on the 25th of February 2013.

As of the 10th of February 2013 Chieftan Mew’s twitter looks like this:

@ChieftanMews Running amok near undisclosed location – gut scratching, waiting for bodysnatchin – cos’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2UhvN0k74w …

After months of non-activity on Twitter Chieftan Mews returned for a brief tweet that was deleted within the hour but not before being retweeted by @MeToSpeak (thanks heaps!).
The Youtube link is to a video of R.E.M performing ‘It’s The End of The World As We Know It’

He also updated his Twitter cover to show a previously unpublished Stanley Donwood tree sketch

While at first glance to be just about Atoms for Peace the tweet is a satire of a recent hoax regarding Jonny Greenwood and the band heading to Brazil to await the end of the world.

On December 14th Jonny Greenwood posted the following to Dead Air Space:

In Sydney with the ACO

Just a few weeks left of the residency with the australian chamber orchestra – who are amazing. Hope the resulting music is worth all the trust they’ve put in me. Thanks, gut-scratchers….

Link.
Jonny

The link takes you to a feature by NASA titled ‘Beyond 2012: Why the World Won’t End’ which was the summery of a Google+ Hangout with NASA on the 28th of November focused on disproving 2012 doomsday predictions.

The post is a response to a story run by The Daily Mail (The Newspaper..not the song) on the 13th reporting that Radiohead’s management had been forced to deny claims that Jonny Greenwood was in Brazil to await the end of the world.

Radiohead guitarist forced to deny hiding out at Brazilian hotel ‘waiting for Mayan prediction that the world will end’

Representatives of Radiohead today denied local media reports that the band’s guitarist Jonny Greenwood is hiding out in a rural Brazilian hotel to ‘wait for the end of the world’.

The hoax originated with local São Paulo newspaper Folha who co-incidentally happened to put the story up at 12/12/2012 – 12h12 either as a joke or a publicity stunt.

Chieftan describes himself as ‘Running amok near undisclosed location’

AMOK is the title of the upcoming Atoms for Peace album to be released on the 25th of February 2013.

(Source : Dead Air Space)

The cover and videoclip for the debut single Default features the Lost Angeles artwork by Stanley Donwood.

Wiki provides the following meaning of the phrase ‘ Running Amok’

Running amok, sometimes referred to as simply amok[1] (also spelled amuk, from the Malay meaning “mad with uncontrollable rage”) is a term for a killing spree perpetrated by an individual out of rage or resentment over perceived mistreatment. The syndrome of “Amok” is found in the DSM-IV TR.[2] The phrase is often used in a less serious manner in relation to someone or something that is out of control and causing trouble (e.g., a dog tearing up the living room furniture might be said to be running amok)

Bodysnatchin is a reference to Bodysnatchers, a song from In Rainbows.

With the Radiohead tour over for the year there is hope for a Atoms for Peace and/or Ultraista tour next year.. assuming Cheiftan Mews is wrong about it being the end of the world of course!

Thanks to Vitor for the image

The image is taken directly from from Stanley Donwood’s website and consists of the Radiohead ‘Modified Bear’ logo combined with a photo of Lost Angeles which is on exhibition as of Tomorrow (April 28th, 2012) at Subliminal Projects in L.A

Lost Angeles
Stanley Donwood
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 28th • 8PM – 10 PM

There is no future. We have evicted ourselves from our own cities, rendered our agriculture poisonous, criminalized the poor, aggrandized the rich, honored the stupid and ridiculed the intelligent…I have no solutions, no wisdom to offer…Whilst Rome burns, I take up my little chisel and I carve a panoramic apocalypse of my own…and if you want to see it, you’re more than welcome. – Stanley Donwood, 2012

SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS is pleased to announce Lost Angeles, a solo exhibition of art by British artist Stanley Donwood.

Lost Angeles will feature a new body of work where Donwood turns his poignant perception on the impact of current societal trends and behavior towards Los Angeles. His visual meditation on society envelopes viewers in a beautifully, graphic landscape of impending doom. The fluid black and white scene resonates with honesty and forewarning. True to form, Donwood once again succeeds in giving flawless design to his version of our tragically flawed future.

On display will be an 18-foot apocalyptic panorama of the City of Angels being destroyed by fire, flood and meteor storm. Originally carved into 18 separate panels of linoleum then hand burnished onto Japanese Kozo paper, the never-before-seen, limited edition print was inspired by subject matter similar to Donwood’s 2006 work titled London Views.

( Source : Subliminal Projects )

( Source: Creative Review.co.uk )

Nigel also provided a photo of the exhibition though his twitter account yesterday:

Apr 27, 2012:

@nigelgod: Exhibition of new Stanley Donwood’s work “Lost Angeles” at our friend Shepard Fairey’s gallery in echo park! Yee har!

Followed up with news that there would be a Atoms for Peace DJ Set at Transmission LA tonight as of 6-10pm. It’s known that both Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich will be DJing for this event.

If your lucky enough to find yourself in L.A tonight you can reserve a ticket here before they’re all gone.

or you can check out some cool new interviews and reviews of Stanley’s exhibition here and here amongst other places on the web.

Chieftan Mew’s had previously tweeted about Lost Angeles on August 15th, 2011 while Stanley was in the process of working on the print, you can read more about it and Lost Angeles here.

@ChieftanMews: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX7_C-CLRC8 ; Test 3 ; nth I jot Or

New Tweet tonight from Chieftan Mews containing a Youtube Video link to Flying Over San Jose (BBC2 1975-1976).

Uploaded in 2008 Youtube gives the following description of the file:

This tape was introduced in May 1975 as a new tape and was later twinned with Cheers! to form its later replacement, Five Spanish Dances, which was launched in December 1976. This tape was composed by the Simon Gale Orchestra and included some of the tracks later to be used on Summer Sunny Holiday and Melancholic Rock, and was the first tape to be launched on BBC2 after the decision was made to reduce trade on the channel in favour of a lunchtime closedown in order to save the BBC money and power from January 1975.

According to comments on Youtube Chieftan Mews had previously linked to this video in a Direct Message to a fan six months ago.

Test 3 comes from this being the third TestCard video Mew’s has tweeted over the past two years, the previous ones where on May 15th 2011 ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncmg3bxtTB0 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6SmOBxP9-g ; Test 2 ).

nth I jot Or is a tricky one that appears to have a maths feel.

Nth is a term used for the largest number in a series of ordered numbers.

I is 1 in Roman numerals or may simply be i as an unknown interger.

The Phrase Finder has the following history for the world jot:

A jot is the name of the least letter of an alphabet or the smallest part of a piece of writing. It is the Anglicized version of the Greek iota – the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet, which corresponds to the Roman ‘i’. This, in turn, was derived from the Hebrew word jod, or yodr, which is the the smallest letter of the square Hebrew alphabet. Apart from its specialist typographical meaning, we still use the word jot more generally to mean ‘a tiny amount’. Hence, when we have a brief note to make, we ‘jot it down’.

( Source: www.phrases.org.uk )

Or is often used in maths to determine a Boolean operation where one can either be true or false.

It could also be a reference to Or Records a London based independent record label founded in 1998 who specialized in Electronic and Experimental Computer Music including a two edition of their own computer music audio magazine in 1999 featuring Aphex Twin and others. You can still order it from Touchshop for £6.00 plus postage.

( Source: Touchshop.org )

@ChieftanMews: This is wrong on so many levels. Someone correct this or ramifications will be distributed: http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/chieftan

Chieftan Mews interrupted his Q&A with a link to Websters Online Dictionary (Not to be mistaken with the official Merriam-Webster Website ) where they provided the following definition of ‘Chieftan’

“Chieftan” is a common misspelling or typo for: chieftain, chieftains, chief tan.

Common Expressions: chieftan

Expressions : Definition
Chieftan Mews : Chieftan Mews is an english actor employed by Radiohead to present The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth of All Time. He is currently on the run and believed to be hiding out in Tunisia. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Common Expressions: chieftan
Expressions : Definition
Chieftan Mews : Chieftan Mews is an english actor employed by Radiohead to present The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth of All Time. He is currently on the run and believed to be hiding out in Tunisia. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.
Top

The entry for Chieftan was added by Philip M. Parker the editor and creator of the Websters Online Dictionary, and while no references are linked it’s possible he had been reading AtEase which had a news item on the 15th of December 2004 stating:

A recent report indicated that Chieftan may have been spotted in Tunisia….

The report refers to http://www.ChieftanMews.com which in 2004 was owned by the band and appeared to have contained various messages from Chieftan Mews before redirecting to http://www.Radiohead.tv

Since 2009 ChieftanMews.com is again an active URL but doesn’t appear to be owned by Radiohead or anyone associated with them.

While no correction has been made in the past 10 years to update the fact that Chieftan Mews is not a actor nor employed by Radiohead the nature of the web means that those ‘facts’ have now been cited widely online with QWika and tvwiki where someone has added:

Chieftan Mews is an english actor employed by Radiohead to present The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth of All Time. While talking, his mouth often moves and rolls in unnatural ways, leading some to believe he is not human. He is currently on the run and believed to be hiding out in Tunisia.

Throughout the filming of “Radiohead.tv”, Singer Thom Yorke and presenter Chieftan Mews apparently got in a fist fight of sorts. According to Yorke, “Mews (Chieftan) just grabbed me during teatime and proceeded to scream into my face about paying him his damn money”. At this point, York responded by kicking Mews in the face, resulting in a broken nose. The flurry of punches that ensued by both men had to be broken up by Producer Nigel Godrich.

While Mew’s instructs someone to correct the errors unlike Wikipedia the Websters Online Dictionary is not editable by just anyone, instead edits are made by emailing the editor. Being a Hotmail address it’s possible the email no longer works today.

In December 2010 Tunisia hit headlines around the world due to massive protests helped in part by social networking bringing about a democratic revolution inspiring neighboring countries including Egypt and Libya in what came to be known as the Arab Spring movement. On the 8th of February 2011 Ed O’Brien posted his own feelings towards The Dignity Revolution (as the Tunisian revolution had come to be called) on Dead Air Space adding:

What have twitter and facebook ever done for us?

Obviously, keeping in touch with everyone but I have to say I have become increasingly excited over the last 3 months about the possibilities of this form of communication.Yes I am very slow out of the blocks. It’s in the arena of public protest that it seems twitter and facebook are increasingly the means by which popular movements throughout the world are able to come together and mobilise.

I have been so moved by the peaceful Jasmine revolution in Tunisia; The anti-Government demonstrations centred on Tahrir Square in Cairo.. Social networking has helped facilitate the freedom to assemble peacefully and express oneself. Equally in Britain it seems to be having a similar effect in helping essential protests being organised by students and groups such as UK Uncut against the Government’s ill thought out cuts … Well done those people!
Ed

The image shows a picture of a Tamiya 1:35 Scale Model Kit for a Chieftain Mk.5 Tank:

Tamiya is a Japanese company famous for their plastic model kits and accessories. Founded in 1946 they celebrated 50 years of producing scale models of military units in 2012.

The image appears to have been taken from ModelCars.com where the kit is on sale for $20.60 USD (Plus postage).

Tamiya provide a very detailed history of the Tank on the site:

The Chieftain Tank is one of the best known of the present generation of battlefield weapons, and is one of the most heavily armoured and armed fighting behicles in service anywhere today. It has not been without its detractors or critics, however, and there has been a running debate by military commentators for several years past on the relative merits of the British Chieftain Tank compared with the main battle tanks of other great military powers- the United States, Soviet Russia, France and West Germany – whose present equivalent designs afford a fasinating contrast with Chieftain in many key aspects.

The Chieftain, however, was developed as a result of British tank experience in World War II and after, and reflects the priorities which British tank men felt to be the most important terms of firepower, protection and mobility. British tank development in World War II resulted in the famous Centurion, which first appeared in 1945 in the closing weeks of the war. The Centurion, together with the Soviet T-34/85, and German Panther, represented the culmination of thinking (arising from actual experience) which pointed the need for a “universal” tank had, meanwhile, been disturbed by the appearance of the Soviet Josef Stalin II tank in 1945, with a powerful 122mm gun.

In the Immediate post-war years it became clear that Soviet Russia and her East European allies (later the Warsaw Pact powers) posed the greatest threat to Western Europe in any future conflict, and this led, subsequently, to the setting up of NATO. If war broke out, much of the initial fighting at least would take place in Europe, notably in Northern Germany, and Britain’s armoured divisions were either located in or earmarked for deployement to Germany. The backbone of the Soviet armoured divisions in the 1950′s was the formidable JS-III and its T-1- derivative, both with the 122mm gun, which could out shoot the 20 pdr. (84 mm)gun of the early service versions of Centurion. To strengthen the firepower of the Centurion, therefore, the British developed an introduced a “heavy tank gun”, the conqueror with a 120mm gun specifically to match the Stalin. The Centurion at this time was classed as a “medium gun tank”. The Conqueror was unsatisfactory in many ways; it was very heavy, noisy, relatively slow, and made an extra logistic liability for relatively few vehicles. By 1066 the Conqueror was withdrawn from service and an up gunned Centurion with 105 mm gun was in service.

You can read the rest over at ModelCars.com.

The ccccc is probably for 5 x Chieftain being that it was a Mk.5 model.

While Mk.5 is similar to Mk1 and Mk2 from the 2nd disc of In Rainbows the abbreviation is short for ‘Mark’ and used in a number of different fields including the British Military, Cars and Musical Instruments.

In 2009 Radiohead donated Mk2 for a ad for the National Coalition for the Homeless, you can watch it on Youtube here.

Well as promised Mew’s took to twitter early this morning (or in the middle of the day/evening depending where you where) answering 23 questions in all.

First however he changed his twitter profile picture to ccccc.jpg:

Which shows the box for a scale model of a British Army Chieftain Mk.5 Tank.

The following is a full transcript of his tweets from tonight, (note that time is in EST GMT+10).

Unlike last year Chieftan Mews replied to each question directly instead of retweeting them first. This is because Twitter now keeps conversations intact so others can read tweets in context.

1.
12:47 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @vematias I don’t work with “them”. I have a few things I’m working on. Things in the hopper. Consulting gigs. I’m doing just fancy, why?

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews are you going to sell some stuff again? Why not any appearance since the webcast?

2.
12:49 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @FernandoDante He’ll have to ‘shed’ more light on that to you himself. Contact me for his access to his ghost twitter account.

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews what made Ed realize his new haircut wasn’t working?

3.
12:52 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @inrainbows08 The drinks are causing you the headaches. Switzerland today. Withdraw completely and they will go away.

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews Q#1 your location?

4.
12:52 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @CrownClown Best question of the day, thank you.

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews

5.
12:53 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @wintrygrave I’m going to live tweet the Swansea game.

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews Any plans for April Fool’s Day?

6.
12:56 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @FullTimeFutbol Not at all. It sucks out our souls. It takes us away from freedom. It gives us perception, not reality. Spurs are tired.

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews do you enjoy the interenet?

7.
12:56 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @TheEvilJam Ask more questions in your daily life and you’ll be surprised of the answers. Leave me be. And be persistent.

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews Will you answer if we question?

8.
12:57 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@inkybrown …………….

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews Sir, are you still stuck in the ziggurat? I thought I saw you in some rainbow lit bottles behind a stage… or didn’t i?

9.
12:57 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @agenericreality Someone was sent a sex toy for some art? You are being nasty. Don’t make me block you.

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews was the 12″ for the winner of the drawing ever sent out

10.
12:58 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @Ims_Menoo FALSE. ALL FALSE

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews did you see our websites? http://www.imsmenoo.com / http://www.ersmenoo.com

11.
12:58 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @twisted_words Incapable. We all are incapable of it. It’s manufactured.

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews Have you ever been in love?

12.
12:58 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @ElMuggs Me me. My my.

Reply to:

G’day @ChieftanMews, if I may ask what a Rubberneck is and the best way to avoid them? #soundsratherdirty

13.
12:59 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @foreigntoken ♥

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews Hellow! what’s a dream you’ve had- lofty, lucid or otherwise? ?

14.
1:00 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @vematias PJ did, I tweeted this months ago.

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews who won the contest last year?

15.
1:00 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @bilsbyd Very good question. Be at ease with yourself first.

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews Ayahuasca or Peyote? aka DMT or Mescaline?

16.
1:01 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @ElMuggs @StanleyDonwood botched that one. This is why I have distanced myself from “them”

Reply to:

…also @ChieftanMews if I could be so bold, your minions in Melbourne gave us this with TUS, what was it for? http://pic.twitter.com/1Pb7eYo5

17.
1:02 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @jeffscanlon78 See more. Smell more. Taste more. Instinct more.

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews How do you cure hearing damage?

18.
1:04 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @ro32x Poems. Writing lengthy UN resolutions. Collecting interest on siphoned monies. Eating. Sleeping. Thinking about the internet.

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews What do you generally do when you’re not communicating via the interweb?

19.
1:05 AM – 2 Apr 12

@FakeMBrundle Are you the real Brundle?

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews Is there a Mrs Mews?

20.
1:05 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@Aquarelleblog Lost footage is a pattern with “them”.

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews Hi Chief.Are there any plans for “My Showbiz Life” interview follow ups with the boys? I always wondered why Ed kept “honking”

21.
1:12 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@xDeeJayBee You may have already and not known of it. I’m known as a slapper.

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews What should one say if he or she were to ever bump into you? And how would they know it was really you?

22.
1:13 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@CrownClown A serious answer to any question you followed up with. The answer to your follow up question is: NOTHING

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews what do I win?

1:19 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: This is wrong on so many levels. Someone correct this or ramifications will be distributed: http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/chieftan

23.
1:21 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: @radioheadperu In some recycled bottle container en route to the “Pacific Northwest”

Reply to:

@ChieftanMews feliz 32 de marzo, señor mews. where are you hiding now?

Mew’s finished the Quiz with the following message:

1:22 AM – 2 Apr 12 via web

@ChieftanMews: OVER. DONE WITH. MASSIVELY DISAPPOINTED WITH YOU ALL. ASK BETTER QUESTIONS. THINK HARDER AND ASK AGAIN NEXT YEAR.

So looks like we may well be seeing Mew’s again next March 32nd. Hopefully with enough time for fans to think up some new questions more of his liking.

Update:
On April 2nd Chieftan Mews has deleted all his Q&A tweets. It also appears that he’s returned his profile image to clipclopclipclop.jpg

@ChieftanMews: Oui Emil, yes, Mañana es 32 de Marzo. Q&A questions due 24 hours from now Kiritimati time. I want your freedoms.

Mew’s tweeted this in reply to Emil’s tweet reminding him that Tomorrow is the 32nd of March:

@EmilioGuardado: Mañana es 32 de Marzo! ( @ChieftanMews )

Last year on March 32nd (April 1st) Chieftan Mews ran a Twitter Q&A with Fans over in which he answered 18 questions.

With tomorrow marking exactly a year since that day Chieftan Mew’s replied with news that he is going to do another Q&A this year.

He provided the following deadline to have your questions tweeted to him by:

24 hours from now Kiritimati time.

Kiritimati is another name for Christmas Island and suggests that all questions should be received by 6:43:00 AM LINT (UTC/GMT +14 hours )

‘I want your freedoms.’ suggests that he wants our time/attention.

@ChieftanMews “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncmg3bxtTB0

One of two links to Youtube Chieftan Mews sent out on the same day both linked Youtube videos of BBC Test Card F titled ‘BBC Test Card F (1978)’.

“The time now very nearly 3 o clock, the next program on bbc1 Songs of Praise follows at 3.15 after a trade test transmission…”

A Youtube commenter names the piece of music as ‘Finally, swing-time’ by Pit Fontana’s New Sound. According to TestcardCircle.uk that song was used during the 2nd half of 1978 to early 1979.

Mew’s tweeted a 2nd Testcard after this one ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6SmOBxP9-g ; Test 2 ), however the second tweet was not deleted until the 20th of March 2012. You can read more about it, and the history of Test Card F here.

Songs of Praise is a weekly religious program first broadcast in 1961 early on Sunday mornings. Consisting of church hymn’s it still runs today and is broadcast in a number of countries.

In 2007 Adam Buxton uploaded a parody of Songs of Praise providing his own subtitles to the program with amusing results:

Adam Buxton is British DJ and Comedian who in 2007 helped Radiohead with their Thumbs_Down webcast to celebrate the release of In Rainbows.

A fan of the band he wrote a nice long detailed blog post about the whole thing here on his website, and later in 2008 entered his own (rather hilarious) remix for the Reckoner remix competition:

Adam Buxton Reckoner Remix

On the 29th of November 2011 Adam Buxton ran a live BUG Music Video’s special evening focusing on Radiohead’s career, during which he screened some behind the scenes footage of the recording of Thumbs_Down, Previous video clips from the band and a interview with Jonny and Colin. Described as a ‘one off’ Adam repeated the event in Los Angeles on February 2nd 2012.

( Source : Yelp.com )

A Silly Blog carries a nice review and description of the event Here.

One of the most interesting bits of trivia from the program refers to a In Rainbows Scrapbook mentioned in the Bug Program notes as a ‘proposed but ultimately unreleased DVD ‘scrapbook’ from the In Rainbows period’.

(Source: Attributed to Ian Davies by Auntie Nubbins of A Silly Blog )

Adam Buxton is on twitter as AdamRealBuxton and is one of the accounts Chieftan Mews follows on Twitter.