Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr has insisted that he'll never retire as he received a lifetime achievement award.

Marr, who plays the National Stadium in Dublin on November 2 and the Ulster Hall in Belfast on November 1, also said that it would be a waste of his famous haircut if he were to hand in his plectrum.

Speaking after he was honoured at the GQ Men Of The Year Awards, he told the Press Association: "Hard luck everybody who wants me to retire. If you're sick of seeing me, you'll have to get used to me.

"You wouldn't waste a haircut like this for 44 years, you have to keep it going for a few more decades."

The 54-year-old, who released his third solo album Call The Comet last June, also offered advice to younger musicians, saying they should be spending time reading books and visiting art galleries.

"It was always my intention to have a life in music, at whatever level, even if I was playing in some covers band," he said.

"So it doesn't surprise me that I've been a musician all my life and I obviously intended on being a musician come what may. But to be successful for a long time, I think a big part of it is working on keeping yourself interested in lots of different things because then you can bring it into your work.

"In my case it was getting to do movies and try to be a better live performer, you have to keep yourself interested.

"You can't think you're just going to fall out of bed and have great ideas, you have to read plenty of books and watch plenty of films and go to plenty of art galleries, that is what I do."

Reflecting on his award, he said: "It's great to get recognition for your work, I first went to an awards ceremony in about '83 or '84, something like that, and I was really young then and Ray Davies was getting an award.

"I was standing in the audience and I was feeling an appreciation for, in this case, Ray Davies, so I take it in that kind of spirit.

"It's quite easy in some ways for rock musicians to be dismissive of this sort of stuff because it isn't why we do it but I take it in the spirit of it, a big pat on the back. Because it's nice to be a room where people say, 'We like you'."

You can read our recent interview with Johnny Marr here.