Paul McGuigan (musician)

Paul Francis McGuigan (born 9 May 1971), better known by his nickname, Guigsy (pronounced "Gwigzee"), is a British musician and one of the four founder members of the British rock band Oasis. He was the group's bassist from 1991 to 1999.

In the late 1980s, McGuigan started a band with his friends, Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs on guitar, Chris Hutton on lead vocals, later joined by Tony McCarroll on drums. They called themselves The Rain. After Hutton was fired, McGuigan invited his school friend, Liam Gallagher, to join.

Though a functional bassist onstage, McGuigan's bass tracks were often replaced by Noel Gallagher on the band's recordings, especially on Definitely Maybe, which features no bass tracks by McGuigan at all. McGuigan has admitted to smoking marijuana during touring.

McGuigan left Oasis in 1999 and was replaced by bassist Andy Bell in the following year. Noel Gallagher claims he quit via fax and avoided phone calls from the Gallaghers in the following weeks. Though he eventually gave up trying to contact him by phone, Noel claims to bear no malice towards McGuigan.

He occasionally performs as a DJ. He declined to appear in the 2004 Definitely Maybe DVD, though a polite letter explaining his reasons for doing so appears as a hidden extra, along with a short segment with pundits giving their views on him.

A lifelong sports fan, McGuigan especially loves football. He is a supporter of Manchester City F.C. Whilst still with Oasis, he and journalist Paolo Hewitt wrote a book about football player Robin Friday, entitled The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw (ISBN 9781840181081). McGuigan was renowned for his encyclopaedic knowledge of football and cricket. In an interview for a BBC Radio 1 documentary in 1995, McGuigan said his favourite magazine is FourFourTwo.

McGuigan presently lives in Mill Hill, North London with his wife and son.