How come I end up where I started?

Hi, it's Adriaan, you know... that dude from AT EASE, the Radiohead website. This is a weird place, but I think I owe you all an explanation.

'What happened to AT EASE?' I've had that question a lot in the past couple of months and I've been ignoring most of your questions. My apologies for that, but here goes...

I've started this little website some 21 years ago. If you feel old right now, imagine how I feel ;). Started out as a little project to see if I can make a website. Well, that worked. Sorta. It actually turned into something really big. And fun. Delivering news on Radiohead on a daily basis, maintaining a message board and all that stuff was a great way to spend my free time. All that traffic costed money too. When tens of thousands of people (sometimes it was over a 100.000) per day check out your site, you'll have to move to a dedicated server. Just to give you an idea: usually a small business shares a server with dozens of other websites. I needed three dedicated servers. That just costs almost 300 dollars every single month.

When there's a lot of traffic you can have Google Ads cover those costs, when there isn't, you'll be losing some cash and just wait till Radiohead releases another album or go on another tour. Well, there weren't that many albums in recent years and on top of that I got caught up in a job, which required full dedication. And that made it harder to pick things up on everything Radiohead. However, those monthly bills kept coming in. I don't want to think about how much money this site has cost me. But at some point, at the end of 2017, I realised all of my saving had evaporated. So I had to cancel those dedicated servers and look for a cheaper option.

I gave my server hosters a heads up I was going to cancel soon. Didn't give them a final date just yet, cause I had to organise alternatives and was still busy with work. But before I knew it, the host had cut the cord. Which means that everything I worked on, everything you guys posted on that message board, all the archives, etc etc was... er... GONE. I'm pretty devastated about that. So I put my head in the sand for a while. I've learned the hard way with that tactic; it doesn't really work.

In the meantime, I quit my job. Returned to freelancing for now, started my own little label and management business and Radiohead are touring again. I've been posting on this temp site for a couple of days now and geared up the social media and remember how much fun it is again.

So I guess I'd like to try to get things up and running again. Although I'd have to do it without a backup of those 21 years. Maybe get that board back too (if I can do that without spending too much). If you all want it back of course. So please let me know. Would love to hear what you think.

And also, Radiohead in New York this week. Looking forward. It's been a while. Hooray!

Thx,

Adriaan