Tinie Tempah meets Scunthorpe fan as town visit date remains unknown
Tinie Tempah has met fan Ben Jones for the first time after a campaign reached 5,000 pre-saves for his album, but no date has been given for the promised Scunthorpe visit.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
Tinie Tempah has agreed to visit Scunthorpe after a fan campaign hit the target he set for album pre-saves. The rapper, a chart-topping Brit Award-winning musician, met campaign organiser Ben Jones in person for the first time on the day the story was reported. The meeting did not take place in Scunthorpe.
Ben Jones, a fan from the town, started the campaign after Tinie's 2010 number one hit Pass Out included the line: 'I've been to Southampton but I've never been to Scunthorpe.' The lyric became a local talking point. Jones rallied support, carried a cardboard cutout of the rapper and worked for several months to reach the challenge set by Tinie: 5,000 pre-saves for his new album, The Night's Not Dead. If the number was reached, Tinie promised to finally come to Scunthorpe. Jones delivered, and Tinie said he would make the trip.
Tinie said: 'Set someone a near impossible task and you kind of think they're gonna like just forget about or give up. But Ben actually went ahead with it. And I think he's been going about it for several months and he reached the target. So here we are and it looks like I'm gonna be there.'
He also responded to the support from the town, saying: 'This is from me and all the people in Scunthorpe. Wow, I can feel it. You can feel the Scunthorpe love, it's coming out.'
Local reaction was positive but uncertain about the timing. One resident said, 'It's about time he's come to Scunny.' Another said, 'It is Tinie Tempah time he came.' When asked when he would visit, responses suggested no date had been confirmed. One person said, 'I don't know when he's coming.' Others were surprised the visit was actually going ahead.
The coverage framed the meeting as the end of a long wait, with 16 years since the lyric first became famous. The lyrics were from Pass Out, which spent 65 weeks in the charts back in 2010. Tinie and Jones met after the pre-save target was reached, with the cardboard cutout on loan. Scunthorpe is still waiting for the visit itself, but Tinie has said he will be there.
On screen
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Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, grouped by how many channels reported each one. Select a dot to see the source excerpt.
| Claim |  |
|---|---|
| Only on one channel | |
| Fan Ben Jones and Tinie Tempah met for the first time on the day of the report, but not in Scunthorpe. | |
| Tinie Tempah set a challenge for 5,000 pre-saves of his album The Night's Not Dead and promised to visit Scunthorpe if the target was reached. | |
| Tinie Tempah's song Pass Out contains a line stating that he had never been to Scunthorpe. | |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
ITV Evening News treated the story as a light human-interest and viral campaign piece. It led with the famous lyric from Pass Out, followed fan Ben Jones and the 5,000 pre-save challenge, then reported the first in-person meeting between Jones and Tinie Tempah. The tone was playful and local, with vox pops and no confirmed date for the Scunthorpe visit.
- “This is from me and all the people in Scunthorpe. Wow, I can feel it. You can feel the Scunthorpe love, it's coming out.”
- “Set someone a near impossible task and you kind of think they're gonna like just forget about or give up. But Ben actually went ahead with it.”
- “It's coming home, it's coming. Tinie's coming home.”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.