Top Gear Live news - Top Gear Live is back! - 2009

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Forget U2 at Wembley, AC/DC at the O2 or, er, Bananarama at the Dog and Duck in Tewkesbury: the greatest show in the world is back!

Yes, Top Gear Live is returning to the big stage this autumn, kicking off at Earls Court in London from November 5-8, then to Birmingham's NEC from November 12-15 before heading off to conquer the world. Dublin, Amsterdam, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Sydney, Auckland and Hong Kong have already been confirmed as venues.

Jeremy, James and Richard announced the return of Top Gear Live in true intrepid explorer fashion, dangling from a hot air balloon with Captain Stig of the Antartic peering out over the basket.

The boys promised to bring Top Gear's tried-and-tested mix of fastness, explosions and ambitious failure to the stage, and announced that Stig would accompany them on the entire tour to lend his unique driving skills and meaty aroma to proceedings.

Jeremy also took the opportunity to confirm that, contrary to malicious rumours bandied around at the end of the last series, Top Gear is in rude health and the boys aren't planning on stopping any time soon.

"We would stop doing Top Gear when we didn't enjoy making it any more but, at the moment, it is just the most fantastic fun you can have," said Jeremy. "Motor racing can be quite boring, if we're honest - they are even crashing on purpose these days - so we decided to have a race where the cars are set on fire before they start."

We'll be bringing you lots more news from Top Gear Live before the show kicks off in November. Tickets are on sale now: either head over to the MPH website or call 0871 230 5588. What are you waiting for?

You could also win yourself some tickets, so just watch this for more info...