Old Smithy Recording Studios owner speaks out about potential demolition plans

A historic music studio in Worcester, which saw the likes of Jimmy Ruffin, AC/DC, and Black Sabbath record there, could potentially be demolished and replaced with two houses, according to a report by the Worcester News.

Planning permission for the project at the Old Smithy Recording Studios in Post Office Lane, Kempsey, has been approved by Malvern Hills District Council.

Yet Muff Murfin (pictured, right), who set up the studio in 1977 and continues to run radio stations with his wife seven days a week, told AMI that he has no plans to have the studio demolished just yet.

Plans to demolish the recording studio and build one home and a double garage previously received planning permission in 2003. “There’s quite a chunk of land that goes with the studio,” said Murfin in a recent interview with AMI. “We applied for outline permission quite a long time ago just to see how easy it was, with thoughts of the future, but this expired.”

While the studio is not as busy as it used to be, I’m still writing myself and I really don’t want to get rid of it just yet

– Muff Murfin, studio owner

Despite the now approved plans, the studio remains active and is currently being used by a number of recording companies. “I’m actually going to start painting it this weekend, which shows I have no plans to demolish it straight away,” revealed Murfin. “We’ve got Judas Priest booked in at the end of the month and while the studio is not as busy as it used to be, I’m still writing myself and I really don’t want to get rid of it just yet.

Murfin told AMI that he in fact had other plans for the studio originally. “My ideal plan would’ve been to sell it to a charity,” he said. “We ran a programme with a local college before it amalgamated with the University of Newcastle to bring in kids who couldn’t afford a studio. For a while I thought we could get a charity to take it over to carry on what we were doing and keep kids coming into the studio to learn.”

Some nearby village residents have expressed concerns about the potential demolition of the studio due to its strong history and heritage within the local community, to which Murfin responded, “it’s not going to happen anytime soon. I have a community radio station that I run and my wife runs a pretty big commercial station called Sunshine which continues to grow.

“We are really behind live music. We have live events and support new bands from the area, and are partnered with a couple of big festivals,” Murfin concluded.

It looks like the historic Old Smithy is sticking around, at least for the meantime.

This story was originally reported by the Worcester News.