Stoke house music DJ voted one of the world's best

"I'm sort of a biggish fish in a small pond in my own area," says DJ legend Pete Bromley.

Many customers buying vinyl online from a record shop in Stoke-on-Trent may not realise they are ordering from someone with a long history in the dance music world.

Bromley was recently voted number 17 in a top 100 poll of the world's best DJs run by the podcast and social media site The Dancefloor Diaries. His name is alongside the likes of Carl Cox, Sasha and Graeme Park.

In his home city, Bromley's name is associated with iconic club nights, including Introspective and Golden.

He also played across the UK during the 1990s, but for the past 20 years he has "totally concentrated" on his local scene.

"I love my local scene, I love the people here, they are very loyal to me, and it's seen me right all those years," said the 55-year-old.

The Dancefloor Diaries described him as a "highly respected underground selector who has earned admiration for his deep musical knowledge and commitment to quality electronic music.

"His carefully crafted sets reflect a lifetime devoted to dancefloor culture," they added.

Bromley taught himself to mix "because I learnt so early on, there was nobody to teach you."

He practised using megamixes he heard on the radio, which helped him "get a sense of what was going on."

Among the first records he bought two copies of in the early 1980s were Madonna tracks. He started by "practising going from one to the other", and things quickly escalated: "By 1985–86, I was doing full mixes on cassette."

Bromley began working in clubs in Longton. "The first successful rave night was 89 to 90, called Introspective, which was at the Leisure Bowl," he said. He was "desperate" to get the gig, where the Friday-night crowd numbered around 800.

Seeing audiences respond to the music he selected and the way he mixed it was "quite a powerful thing; you have to make sure it doesn't go to your head," he said.

Although the feeling could be addictive, Bromley - who can sometimes be critical of his own performance - said the praise only meant something if the DJing was done to a standard where it was deserved.

"Everybody craves for this praise these days. It's so easy to throw a digital set together and have the equipment help you out - whereas that was never a thing when I started."

The record shop he has managed for nearly 34 years started out serving local DJs, but today virtually all the trade is online, with vinyl being sent worldwide.

"We've got some customers who are strictly dance music and some customers who will only ever buy one artist. Record collecting is a weird thing."

Bromley said he started asking his family for records when he was four and has never parted with any of his collection.

Although he is known for playing house music, his personal passion is eighties breakdance and electro. At night, he browses online record shops in the US.

Such is his love of vinyl; when he was 30, he decided to do what he called the "jukebox of his life".

"What I wanted to do was own every seven-inch record that has ever meant anything to me through my life."

It was a 15-year process, resulting in him amassing around 4,000 seven-inch singles, and he is still on the lookout for meaningful vinyl.

"Even to the point where I'm tracking down everything with the original picture sleeve, because it's like an index of my life. It means that much to me."

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