Bad Company [ tickets ] will officially kick off their first Paul Rodgers-fronted tour in nearly 20 years with a pay-per-view special to be broadcast live from Orlando's Hard Rock Live on May 21st. After playing the relatively intimate 2,400-capacity room for the broadcast, the tour will graduate to arenas and amphitheatres a month later.

Tour dates for the summer run are still being finalized according to the band's publicist, though a June 24th date at Washington, DC's MCI Center and an August 8th show at Los Angeles' Greek Theatre were confirmed at press time.

Additionally, pre-tour dates have been booked at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, FL on May 15th and 16th and at the Pompano Beach Amphitheatre on May 19th to lock in some technical elements of the show and break in some new material before a live audience prior to the pay-per-view event.

The broadcast will emanate live from the venue, with the band set to take the stage at approximately 9 p.m. EST for what is expected to be a two-and-a-half hour show. The event will also be cybercast via the band's official web site.

The reunion of the band came about after Rodgers and the rest of the members gathered in late 1998 for business meetings surrounding Elektra Records' plan to prepare a 25th anniversary compilation focusing on their 70's and early 80's catalog. That package, titled The 'Original' Bad Company Anthology , was released in late March.

The original lineup had gone its separate ways following the release of 1981's Rough Diamonds. Interestingly, it was the release of a mid-80's hits collection that prompted members Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke and Boz Burrell to revive the Bad Company name with vocalist Brian Howe in 1986. That version of the band recorded and toured through 1994.

In a legal settlement, Howe retained the right to tour as ''Brian Howe, former member