Flogging Molly crack US Top 20

Dave King has gone where no other Irishman has gone this year, which is straight into the American Top 20.

The former lead singer with Dublin rockers QED and Motorhead offshoot Fastway, King relocated in the early '90s to California where, inspired by his love of The Pogues, he founded Celtic punk outfit Flogging Molly.

700-plus gigs later – "We think we're being lazy if we have more than a month a year at home," the 43-year-old laughs – the band find themselves at number 20 on the Billboard chart with their third album, Within A Mile Home.

"Being a group that started off in 1997 at Molly Malone's bar in Los Angeles, being number 20 is a bit of a shock to us but we've worked our arses off," King continues. "We've been touring and touring and touring for a long time now. It's been going from the road to the studio and back on the road. It's been non-stop."

Tracks on the collection, which has so far sold 30,000 copies, include 'To Youth (My Sweet Roisin Dubh)', 'Screaming At The Wailing Wall', 'Seven Deadly Sins', 'Tobacco Island' and the Lucinda Williams-assisted 'Factory Girls'.

You can give Flogging Molly the once-over on November 22 when they play Dublin's Temple Bar Music Centre.