Alec and These Days?

I think Alec performed Always with them a couple of time still in the fall of 94. And when Jon started writing the TD material he wasn't 100% positive he's gonna fire Alec just yet.

Yes, Alec performed Always with the guys but Always isn't on These Days

Well d'oh! I know it isn't. What I mean that Alec was aware of what Jon and Richie were writing for TD.

I though he was fired in the summer or at the latest fall of 1994 ?!

Yeah but the writing process for These Days had started probably in January/February of 1994. During the infamous interview in which Alec said that he'll not be playing on the upcoming album he had also stated that the guys still sent him demo recordings of new songs to ask for his opinion on the material. So I guess he was aware of the sound development during at least 70% of the production process for These Days.

I didn't doubt that. I was just referring to the comment that he played with the guys in the fall of 1994...

Sorry, then I must've misunderstood what you were saying.
He played with them up until the summer of 1994. His last known appearance was at the MTV studios in London on August 10th:

The next full band appearance then was at the end of October at the Letterman show if I remember correctly and by then Hugh was with them.

Sorry, that was my bad. I misrecalled it was later than August.

Yep, its here, in all its glory, straight from the horse's mouth: