Emacs tempo mode does not work on the first line

I'm loading tempo for Emacs:

(require 'tempo)

I can expand templates just fine, however not when the cursor is position on the beginning of the first line in the buffer.

I'm running Ubuntu with GNU Emacs 23.1.50.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Ver开发者_如何学编程sion 2.18.0) of 2009-09-27 on crested, modified by Debian.

How can I use templates when the file is empty?

Solved by switching to YASnippet instead, which wins immensely in usability.