The group recommenced in 1977 as Van Der Graaf with Hugh Banton and David Jackson departed, but with original bass player Nic Potter back in the frame, alongside Hammill, Evans and new violinist Graham Smith. Hopes were high that they might be due some greater commercial success. The word at the time was that if Hammill could only, you know, tone it down a bit, he could maybe be as big as David Bowie, a singer many claim he had influenced. The new album The Quiet Zone/ The Pleasure Dome (1977) turned out to be a superb set with a lean and hungry sound, and featured some of Hammill’s best songs. But superstar status remained elusive.

"The Quiet Zone / The Pleasure Dome is the only prog rock album (and group) at the time to have been accepted and heralded by rock critics during the tumultuous onrush of punk when the current rock standard bearers were being tossed aside as “old farts” (in fact Johnny Rotten was a huge Van Der Graaf Generator fan). “[The Quiet Zone / The Pleasure Dome] proved that venom was not exclusively the prerogative of the punks.” – Record Collector

Soon after, Van Der Graaf had begun recording a number of new, raw, guitar-powered songs, some of which were premiered on the live album Vital (1978). Jackson couldn’t help but come back and guest with them, and with cellist Charles Dickie adding weight to Potter’s fuzz bass lines, the group were capable of being monstrously heavy. As Hammill reflects: “It was perhaps one of the most extreme live recordings of the time...” But this chapter in the group’s history was left frustratingly incomplete when they split..